4 out of 5

Producer: Simon Joyner

Label: Secretly Canadian

Simon Joyner, without doubt, has his followers.  He’s been on magazine covers, he’s had the glowing write-ups.  And yet, he seems to be frequently left out of that lo-fi folk club when kids are discussing Will Oldham or Sam Beam, even though he’s been part of that scene for years and has done his job in offering new material at a consistent pace.  Analysis of evolution in his career is of course a separate topic; besides the inevitable ‘plugged in’ album a lot of these kitlins eventually drop, seeing growth in minimalism generally requires an all-encompassing view of start to present.

Personally, I have a tough time with this genre.  It lends itself to some wanky all-stars – Conor Oberst – or enigmatic oddballs whose style can overwhelm the content – like Oldham.  In the middle of these extremes you get the dour, the cynical, the sarcastic.  But in whatever flavor, I’m hard pressed to stay involved for a full album.  Enter the EP.  (…And, apparently, enter the long intro which pads out a review.)

This EP makes me want to listen to more of Joyner.  It’s not all gold, but that’s actually a good thing – if it were aces all around, I feel I’d probably be disappointed following the experience with a full album.  So instead we get some indulgences, and more importantly we get a seemingly whole picture of what Joyner can do, a plaintive shoulder-shrug honesty that I feel he does better than a lot of his peers.  The title track is phenomenal.  I’m not a big fan of specifics in songs (like using names, because it only makes me conjure an image of a person with that name), but two of the best tracks here – Christine and Courting Mary – generic-name-drop, but it’s presented so rawly that I can relate to it, regardless.  The chorus of ‘Courting Mary’ (‘Where’d you put my water, Jack?’) is silly, but again, Simon’s almost squeaky yearning sells it as a frantic cry, and I sing along and wonder where my water is as well.  (That motherfucking Jack.)  The minimal drums and clatter helps to liven the EP, but the painfully gorgeous ‘Everything’s At Stake’ is guitar and voice, Joyner navigating through seemingly unconnected two-or-three line stories that, again, work as one because of how they’re presented and sung.  Second track ‘John Train’s Blues’ is solo Joyner as well, but at seven fairly unchanging minutes it tends to sink in and out of drone until we finally get to Simon’s singing of the title in the song’s conclusion.  Closer ‘Yellow Precious Letter’ is a bit too precious to work for this EP, like 1-tracked and hissing and the vocals fading in and out – this would serve as a better counterpoint led in by more tracks – but again, it serves the purpose of giving us another probable aspect of Joyner’s repertoire.

You are correct that I still haven’t picked up another Joyner album, though.  There were just too many Bush singles to buy…!  But also, at the time when I probably would’ve, I had an irrational hatred for Bright Eyes (now it’s rational.  Yay!) and a girlfriend dragged me to a show featuring Oberst… and Joyner.  So they were forever linked.  But in revisiting this EP… I mean, now I have Turtles comics to buy, but the intention to get more Joyner is there now.  Woot, and such.