𝗖𝗼𝗻𝗻𝗼𝗹𝗹𝘆’𝘀 𝗖𝗼𝗿𝗻𝗲𝗿 - this week: Take Your Life Seriously - Eric Michael Jones

Welcome all to 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝗻𝗼𝗹𝗹𝘆’𝘀 𝗖𝗼𝗿𝗻𝗲𝗿, a series of weekly reviews by Charles Connolly - an artist in his own right. Here, Charles delves into the greatest brand new singles brought to you by the best unsigned artists on our electrifying and eclectic set of 𝙉𝙚𝙬 𝘼𝙧𝙩𝙞𝙨𝙩 𝙎𝙥𝙤𝙩𝙡𝙞𝙜𝙝𝙩 playlists.

𝙏𝙖𝙠𝙚 𝙔𝙤𝙪𝙧 𝙇𝙞𝙛𝙚 𝙎𝙚𝙧𝙞𝙤𝙪𝙨𝙡𝙮 - 𝙀𝙧𝙞𝙘 𝙈𝙞𝙘𝙝𝙖𝙚𝙡 𝙅𝙤𝙣𝙚𝙨

Charles takes it easy…

Why do I work hard? Why do I take it so seriously? It’s WORK, for God’s sake (that could be taken in two ways…). Well, why should I take ANYTHING seriously, for that matter…? I mean, as long as it isn’t hurting anyone, why not be silly and float aimlessly through life like a butterfly…? All relatively decent questions, but what’s it all about? Huh. Another question. Well, this is just something I’ve been pondering lately. When you’re young, it’s all about fun and wasting time. That’s what youth is for. Then you get a bit older, and you start to panic. You knuckle down to the point of exhaustion. This continues for quite a while, and perhaps gets even worse. But there comes a time when you realise mortality, and you start to feel you owe yourself a little bit of selfishness. Sod the partner, sod the kids, sod work. Okay, not sod ANY of them (that’s absurd) - because “sharing is caring” (bleurghh). My point is, that up until this point, you have basically been doing your life a certain way for other people. To make sure your partner is comfortable, relaxed, happy, content and at ease. To make sure your children have the best start in life, and that they don’t quite yet have some sort of crushing or debilitating mental disorder. To make sure your work colleagues like you, and more importantly to make sure your boss is pleased with your performance so they’re not quite ready to sack you. Never give them a reason.

Rather famously, we only have one life. If you didn’t know that, you do now. Unfortunately it is a life where money (to an extent) matters. Vital, in fact. Things cost. Everything costs. So we need a means to earn said pennies. Hence the proper job. But something usually comes with that. Most people seem to just turn into “working professionals”. The term alone is enough to make me shudder, despite it being most people (I suppose including myself). What I mean by this term, is that our personality is somewhat altered by our job and role in life. It’s like going to sleep in a tie. I almost said noose… Take for example, your dwelling. Imagine you had the idea of building on an extension to the house. Good for investment purposes? Increases the worth of the property if you decide to sell, or hand down to your children? Well yes, but only if the inheritance tax doesn’t wipe that off entirely… This is all so sensible. I cannot fault the idea. But already I am wincing. The fact that many/most of us think like this. This isn’t fun at ALL! It is so BORING! So why be like this when one could simply be a free man/ woman/person/thing? Well, supposedly we can all be free of all this. We can all live the life of a hippie, if we so wish. But let’s look at this fictional extension a little differently… The thing is, it’s not a property. Or rather, to an estate agent it’s a property. But really, it’s a home. YOUR home. And an extension should only really be because you feel you want a little more legroom. Or a roof for the oversized snooker table you thought was a sensible purchase at the time… Maybe THEN you can enjoy that Martini in peace!

So why DO I take my work so seriously…? Simples. 3 reasons. My natural inbuilt work ethic, pride, and……. Because I enjoy it. THIS is the most important thing. I am probably quite good at several things, but if I don’t enjoy it, I just couldn’t do it. Not longterm anyway. Yes, I know I am one of the lucky ones. Of course. And I KNOW it. But hell, I got lucky (about ruddy time)! If I didn’t enjoy it, I would resent it, and therefore it really would turn into mind-numbing “WORK”. That, or a debilitating mental disorder (better late than never - or not). I do want to be comfortable and happy in life (as I am), but I have absolutely no inner desire to push and push to the next rung, and the one after that. Correction: I will do that if I remain comfortable and happy.

But then there is the sensible mob. Not the go-getters. Not the strivers. The ones who do their job quietly and efficiently, don’t get in anyone’s way, always go to sleep at the same hour, and awake at the same hour. The ones who habitually wear grey. The ones who habitually THINK grey. Where every doing is done with purpose, point and reason. And every choice not to do is because of the plain rationality of seeing no particular reason to do so. Why would I wear a different colour? Would it be warmer? Would it last longer? “My doctor said change is good” - ah, sod the doctor, just change because WHY NOT!! This one life we have… Why try to make sense of it? Why think of it as purpose? Just enjoy it! (this might just possibly have been said before)

Which leads me to the question of what song to pick… Ah, here we go. That’ll work nicely! Take Your Life Seriously, by Eric Michael Jones. Eric describes himself as “Australian by birth, Canadian by chance, New Yorker by choice”, which gets us off to a very cool start! But, this New Austranadian Yorker is not very new on the New Artist Spotlight. I believe he has been with us for around 19 months. So why on Earth haven’t I reviewed him before? Well, there are MANY artists I haven’t reviewed. Even ones who have been here right from the start (he says with embarrassing honesty). Some artists are perhaps not entirely to my loving. But some are just unlucky in releasing on the very week that another humdinger comes along, being pipped to the post just at the last minute. I cannot remember how many times Eric Michael Jones has been on my maybe list, but certainly quite a few. I think the problem was partly my own. I might have misinterpreted or misunderstood his songs. As in, I have this feeling that I hadn’t until now seen or realised the brilliance beneath. Let me explain. Take Your Life Seriously is his latest single, just released on Saturday. On the surface, it’s a nice, simple song. But as with much by Eric, there is more than meets the, er, ear. You see, upon first listen, this is mid-tempo country/Americana pop/rock. Which is fine. Some people love this style, some people don’t. But subtly, there is something vastly different going on. And I have a feeling this will go for previous tracks of his, where I have maybe not been quite on the ball…

What it is, is: song. All sides of song. Chords, melody, lyrics. That’s all a song is. But while this particular song purports to be usual, it is anything but. The production and genre is what hides this from the average casual listener. I wrote down many songs earlier in my whittling process that were more to “my taste” and “my sound”, but the song often just didn’t stimulate me. OR, Eric for once was the pipper to the post, and those not chosen were simply unlucky. Back to the song. There is folk, there is country, there is pop, there is a bit of rock, and there is even a bit of bossa nova! While I do like a mishmash of genres, this alone would not have been enough to sway me into talking about it this week. You don’t get to become the winner of the 2024 WigWam UK Music Awards that easily (for he did just that in the Best International Male category)!! We start with a VERY synthesised, autotuned, thickly harmonised vocal wall. Already, we are not in country folk territory. But neither are we in “trap beats” territory. What we have here is instant newness, where autotune has been used to great effect. It’s like Simon and Garfunkel with their entire families, in the year 2024. Actually it’s more like a modern take on a traditional chamber choir, complete with hall reverb. Like Fleet Foxes, phase three. There is essence of The Leisure Society - a band whose name spans both sides of the argument this song takes on. More on that later. For now though, we have something somewhat akin to The Shins, The Searchers, The Seekers and a tiny bit of Field Music. Which is all a good thing. A strident acoustic carries the scene, as the voices do their thang.

Aside from the already unusual “usual” sound, it is the melody that truly pulls us along. YOU may have pressed play, setting the notes in motion, but Eric is our trusty steed. Or even stallion! The world’s first horse to have built-in GPS. You might not know where you’re going, but Eric knows which direction to take. It may surprise you, but it won’t disappoint. This is mainly down to his melodies. They’re so adventurous and playful! Enigmatic and characterful. But the first big change occurs little more than 30 seconds in. It’s almost like a Beatle bridge, but more exciting because of how early it arrives. These were the two happiest minor chords I have ever come across. There’s a reason - more on that later. The drums join in at this same moment. Kick, snare? No no. Bongos and congas. I’m never really sure which is which. By this point, it is starting to sound like an American version of The Beatles, otherwise known as, The Byrds. The guitar jangles, the harmonies, the light backbeat, the very hippieness of it all. At just over a minute in, a DELICIOUS guitar tone comes in. Really, one of the nicest, most satisfying guitar tones I have heard on a record. Yes, I know; that’s saying a lot. It’s like a blend of Pete Townshend and Mark Knopfler. It has the softness of a thumb strum, yet the attack of a pick flick. Less than 30 seconds later, we get such beautiful female vocals added to the mix. I don’t know why, but I have a feeling this is Eric himself, but tweaked with magical techno-wizardry. I haven’t yet asked him the who-abouts of the voice, because I wanted to be honest in speaking my thoughts first. As always, I could be entirely wrong. Not that I’m ever wrong. Ahem. It could simply be his wife. Or rather embarrassingly he might quietly inform me that it is in actual fact his son (should he have one). We just don’t know. But I DO know we will find out. Bang on 30 seconds later, we get a lovely little solo - I mean LITTLE. Of all the words to write in uppercase… Anyway, we now land on the REAL bridge. And it’s FAB!! Better use of capital letters.

“More on that later”, he said. Twice. Well, we have touched on the excellent chord changes and the wondrous melodies… What are we left with…? Ah, of course. Woyds. Them lyrics. THIS is the reason I chose this song. All of the above was joyous and fulfilling, but it was the words that really got me. Well, two things really. The words, and his wonderful sense of humour. THIS is really why I think I missed something in his previous singles. Looking back, I can see the brilliance in his words and the wit of his natural humour. Take Your Life Seriously, doesn’t take itself seriously. Quite the opposite. It battles between the serious, dull, regimented type of person, and the weirdly quirky, silly type of person. How both make sense, yet neither make sense. The moral of the story is probably, “don’t be a crashing bore”. Unfortunately it seems that Eric has not uploaded lyrics to the streaming platforms quite yet, but I’m sure he will as he has done so in the past. In the meantime, I would strongly advise tapping this Soundcloud link in order to read them while listening. Please do Eric the honour of listening via your favoured streaming platform of choice though, while reading the words, rather than listening on Soundcloud. As counter-intuitive as that sounds, Soundcloud basically won’t pay if you listen on there, and it won’t show up as streams on Spotify or Apple Music (what we all actually use). Sorry to be a pain, but I think it’s important to say. YOUR ARTIST DESERVES IT! Soundcloud probably won’t like me for saying this, but frankly, let’s face it: they don’t care. None of them does. Hence it basically being all up to us, the listeners, to promote and enjoy the artists’ work! The companies ain’t gonh’ lift a finger, but I’ll lift my entire hand in the air. No, not a fist. No, I’m not waving. I am raising a toast to Eric Michael Jones for making such a fun song, and for bringing a bit of joy and humour to this serious old world.

The next time I fall over and ask the medic if it’s serious, I will be staring into the eyes of Dr. Hibbert, who in character, will laugh, before telling me the bad news.

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