Review of The Art Of Fiction Album by Jeremy Warmsley

Jeremy Warmsley
The Art Of Fiction
Album Review

Jeremy Warmsley The Art Of Fiction Album

Transgressive Records are known for their work with 'real' songwriters so new album release from Jeremy Warmsley should come as no revelation to followers of the label that leapt onto Regina Spektor and the like over the past year or so. Jeremy works like most honest and well-tuned songwriters, alone. Working out all aspects of the tracks himself in a related way to Davey McManus, he has constructed a beautiful and elaborate album that's shaking through The Beatles into the lines of Bright Eyes and his nearest contemporary rival, The Crimea, and with involved mixing has made the most motivated album to come from the pioneering label so far.

I Believe In The Way You Move takes on a familiar Get Cape, Wear Cape, Fly vibe but with slightly more eccentricities glows as one of the superlative tracks on the album. No surprises then that the trumpet packed mid-60s spectacular is Jeremy's next single and with more sections than Bohemian Rhapsody has an enduring charm that keeps it animated, pumping spirit and dynamism into the middle of the album and makes an enchanting pace change from the clouting Jonathan And The Oak Tree that follows straight after. Jonathan is a faultless display of Jeremy's recording technique as it blends so many eclectic aspects into the song with such merciless refinement that you never really know where you stand. Just as you're getting comfortable with the grunge 80s buzzing with pouncing Mary Poppins-esk chorus lines, something else is thrown at you in the form of defeating strings and alluring toy pianos with clapping and enigmatic backing harmonies.

This throws you into the bass driven world of Modern Children which winds down nicely from an Interpol ballad into a surreal vintage cut-and-paste via whining strings and recurring vocals that intermingle with the songs captivating piano hitting throughout to give a confusing yet memorable tune. The most sparkling moments of the album come from 5 Verses and Dirty Blue Jeans, the latter of which pits vocals and pianos in a race with each other similar to Spector's Us but with more chance beats and velocity changes. Though the drum beats of 5 Verses may have been heard in Bright Eyes Time Code, the way Jeremy has pulled the whole song together is imaginative and hypnotic with the best vocal arrangements dotted across the prevalent notations of the album to structure the greatest 3 and a half minutes of recent indie singer/songwriter times. The background voices are also perfectly in place and work well with Jeremy's own Lennon-tortured sound.

Years of evolutionary song writing has encouraged Warmsley, who has been writing himself since the age of 17, and his debut album is alive with his own flavours and spirit spun from his love of traditional songwriters. His voice and lyrics are among the greatest of our generation and like Spektor he's got a whimsical charm that entrances you from the offset and carries you through the 11 tracks of The Art Of Fiction. His influences are running through the album like streams of living history with Jeremy's labour holding them all in place allowing a variety of sounds to accent themselves and through the pleasures of this album you find a new voice that you truly want to know for the rest of your life.

Alex Lee Thomson

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Jeremy Warmsley
The Art of Fiction
Album Review


Described as a mixture of The Beatles and Aphex Twin, an album from Anglo-French singer-songwriter Jeremy Warmsley was always an intriguing prospect, and, I’m happy to say, lives up to all expectations.

Thankfully, or not, depending on where you stand, the beats on display are nowhere near as harsh and abrasive as Richard D. James’, rather they act as embellishments to sweet pop songs, sweet pop songs with very little regard for conventional musical form, but sweet pop songs they are.

Opener “Dirty Blue Jeans” contains so many musical left-turns it should implode, but instead it takes off in a blaze of scattershot glory. Elsewhere, “5 Verses” is a joyous love story, Warmsley’s blissful vocals breathing colour into the glitchy digital of his laptop beats.

The Art of Fiction is an intoxicating album that will stand up to hundreds of repeat listens still sounding fresh. The only track that doesn’t reach his lofty standards is “Hush”, which is crucially the closer, creating
something of an anti-climax. Its downbeat trippiness is nice but peters out early and lacks the wide-eyed charm of highlights like “Modern Children”

This album will probably be towards the top of all the end-of-year polls, and is a shoo-in for a Mercury nomination, even though it will inevitably lose to The Cribs or someone like that. This album is a shining example of the strength of the folktronica scene right now, and deserves all the recognition it can get.

Ben Davis


Site - http://www.jeremywarmsley.com

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