Track Listing

1. Eisenhower Moon
2. LLL
3. You Might Walk Away
4. Air Is Thin
5. Spectral Beings
6. How Will We Know?
7. Hard Not to Believe
8. Aftermath
9. Station Grey
10. I Like the Sound
11. Morning, It Comes
12. Open Halls of the Soul

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #104806 in Music
• Released on: 2007-02-06
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .21 pounds

Amazon.com
Jesse Sykes is hard to pin down--and that's a good thing indeed. She overlaps with current trends, but is completely her own artist. There are elements of alt-country, psych-folk, and singer-songwriter-troubadour, but also others that add alluring breadth to her sound, most notably in the band's penchant for drawing upon the best aspects of Haight-Ashbury ballroom sonics. "How Will We Know" swirls and builds with guitar tones that evoke John Cippolina (Quicksilver Messenger Service) and Barry Melton (Country Joe & the Fish). Sykes has taken those sounds (which were often the best part of the era's rather feeble cowboy machismo) and added finesse, poetics, and a woman's vantage point. Her lyrics are rife with cold winds and loneliness, but never without hope, even if that element is handled by the warm glow of the music. The band is a sympathetically balanced entity with supple power and grace. They move between loud and soft without the now cliched extreme dramatics originally pioneered by the Pixies--another example of Sykes eschewing trends and forging her own path. --David Greenberger

Spin
"Riveting porch noir."

Paste
"Her best record yet. Her voice has grown deeper, richer, and spookier, alternately evoking Cat Power, Grace Slick, and Karen Dalton."

Customer Reviews

Jesse Sykes Haunts Again.
The breathy, masculine voice of Jesse Sykes has a way of making my hair stand on end. This album in particular has a spooky tone which haunts and intruiges me. This band has a fairly unique way of merging country "Americana" with a folk-pop accessibilty. The songs are dark, and yet you find yourself tapping your feet. "I Like the Sound", one of the catchier cuts from this album, reminds me of the best elements of the Mamas and the Papas, while he haunting sounds of "Spectral Beings" brngs to mind coming down with Pink Floyd. "How Will We Know?" is reminiscent of (of all things) the Grateful Dead. For full effect, I recommend you experience this album on a Sunday morning, coming down. Sometimes crisp and desolate, sometimes tender and dreamy, this album certainly satisfies the tastes of this discerning music lover.

good shot
Let me start by saying that I think Jesse Sykes has one of the most fascinating voices around (think a middle-aged Marianne Faithfull), and that I loved her album "Oh My Girl". But I have to say that the energy from that record is painfully lacking here. The songs are good, in some cases outstanding, but they often fade into boring, forgetable vamps that all blend together to make one sluggish piece of music by the end. I whole-heartedly recomend her live show; in it she shows that she can in fact sing the ballads...but she can do a little western boogie just as good.

Casts a Spell
Sykes opens this compelling, sometimes spectral disc with a bit of heavy-hearted Neil Young harmonica and acoustic guitar framing her mournful, cigarette-scarred voice. "Is this still a good place to be?" she sings. That sets the tone for an album of questioning lyrics framed in catchy melodies propelled by former Whiskeytowner Phil Wandscher's surprisingly muscular electric guitar.

Sykes is unsure, about her lover, about the present and the future, her voice conveying that uncertainty. "The Air Is Thin" is a captivating ballad with a bit of trumpet while "You Might Walk Away" is an immediate favorite, a straight-ahead pop rocker punctuated by hand claps.

In fact, the disc isn't easily pegged apart from Sykes' world weary voice. The arrangements are varied and easily carry you through the 12 tracks, leaving you only to rise from the spell it induces to hit play again.