Track Listing

1. Eisenhower Moon
2. LLL
3. You Might Walk Away
4. The 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. The Open Halls Of The Soul

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #89251 in Music
• Released on: 2007-02-06
• Number of discs: 1

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

A Pleasent Suprise
Wow, I wasn't expecting this. Sometimes surprises are better than expectations anyway. I first heard Jesse Sykes on the Sunn O))) and Boris "Altar" album and instantly loved her voice. I mostly listen to metal, hard rock and music most people would describe as "weird". Certainly NOT country or (gasp!) folk. This reminds me of a female Bob Dylan. The lyrics aren't necessarily complex, but they knock you upside your head when you least expect it. Sykes' voice is unique and stunning. She can be forceful and wounded, often in the same verse. The music ranges from country-ish rock to slow acoustic with great production and a warm guitar tone. If all country music was this intelligent and meaningful, I just might trade in my bullet belt for cowboy boots.

Intriguing
When I first heard this I thought I was hearing some lost lost album with Melanie Safka jamming with Crazy Horse, and playing some long-lost songs by the Kinks and Small Faces after listening to John Cale and Lou Reed. Of course that's not the case but it's been a nice surprise anyhow! I'm also surprised nobody else has mentioned Melanie as hers is the first voice that sprang to mind - check out Candles in the rain and you'll hear what I mean. Very enjoyable album compentently played with feeling.

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.