For those of you with the problem of not already owning ‘Citybound’, Jeremy’s great sonic record of a sensitive Aussie traversing the dense spaces of Tokyo, now would be an excellent time to make the world right — as of today, the album can be purchased from your favorite online music retailer. Chuck Klosterman may say that “remastered” just means “made louder,” but the new version of ‘Citybound’, while perhaps being louder, also sounds BETTER: the jagged, angular guitars cut you deeper; the drums (which manage to be both electronic and tribal) make it even harder to sit still, and sometimes drag you along whether you like it or not; the nuances of jeremy’s voice stand out more as he alternately incites you, consoles you, conspires and commiserates with you; and the synths, in their increased expansiveness, lift you up and carry you along to the charming earthiness of shitamachi (here I’m thinking of the choruses of ‘Comfort’)…when they’re not pressing you into a corner between one of those endless escalators on the Hanzomon line and the disturbing, spidery statue at Roppongi Hills (the verses of ‘Comfort’ could be that thing’s theme song).
I’m tempted to start quoting lyrics from the record to illustrate what I mean when I say Jeremy is one of the best lyricists writing today, but that would be foolish when I can let the man speak, or rather write, for himself: whether you buy the record or not, visit this page and see what he has to say. These are words to amazing songs, but this is what people are talking about when they say, “so and so’s lyrics are like poetry!” I challenge you, friends, to visit your favorite music blogs today and find a lyricist better than Monsieur Cox.
Okay, I can’t resist. Here’s a favorite:”you carefully lower yourself into the evening/bathing in friendship, it’s wet on your skin/it’s lavish around you, it covers your eyes/shelters you in your home and quickens your heart/it’s planetlike, you breath it in/then it’s changed into something way beyond heaven/you ease on in/knocked out on wine but never anything less than a knockout/you’re seasonal, you’re so winter, so summer…any blemishes on you dissolve into meaning…if there’s even a little bit there, let it loose on me.” And while I’m at it, I’ll let Jeremy have the last word: “It’s chronic, this is…and it’s happening…if anything is happening…come on, this is a come on”
- Eric Sarmiento 8/30 NJ.
Download a free mp3 of ‘Comfort’ here.
