Austin Leonard Jones - Famous Times (2024) [Hi-Res]

Tracklist

01. Nightlife of a Southern Apologist
02. Life Gone Dim
03. The Dark Heart of the Mouse
04. Theme from the Dick Gibson Show
05. Any Given Sunday
06. This One's for the Watchers
07. What They Did to Marcus Fiesel
08. Bad Will
09. Today My Darling Is My Birthday
10. I'm Gonna Leave
11. Rodeo in Galilee

Austin Leonard Jones was born in New Zealand in 1982, a place that humans didn't settle until the 13th century. Before that it was just chattering birds and rain on leaves. Since he played his first show on Halloween, 2010, in San Antonio, TX, those are sounds he's heard often, driving at dawn from Spokane to Billings or during a magic hour thunderstorm from Athens to Savannah. Across 12 albums, some lo-fi, some a little slick like a new matte paint job, Austin has circled the desolate core of songwriting--its irrevocable distance in seeing clearly what should be hazy nostalgia, and the sadness that follows, with remarkable wit and cheer. His latest album, Famous Times, is amongst his finest--cut with a lapidary yet easy precision like truck stop turquoise that simultaneously symbolizes bleakness and elevates above it.