That comfy old pair… Sweet!!!

4/20/06 UPDATE – We are the Featured Artist Today on earBuzz- Buy the 1st cd for only $5

earBuzz just posted very positive reviews about ‘A Comfortable Pair’ AND ‘Sweet Simulacra’. Granted they are selling the album, but a lot of the other album reviews don’t contain this much praise.

earBuzz Review: The Jones Thing’s 2004 record,”A Comfortable Pair”, is a 13 song lesson in songwriting by one Jeffrey Mark Jones. His style and execution of melody and lyric earns fitting comparisons to XTC and Elvis Costello and vocals that also conjur phrasings of Joe Jackson. The opening track, “Electricitii”, showcases Jones’ falsetto and introduces a band that combines superb guitar playing with drums and bass that are melodic and appropriate for each song. It makes sense that Eric Neal, bassist, is also a guitarist and violinist. The bass lines are as supportive and interesting melodically as any we’ve heard.

Poor Trey Carmichael – what can a drummer do when everyone else is changing instruments except continue playing dependable solid beats. Carmichael shines in the first track as he fits drum flams and fills around Jones’ lyric perfectly. Track 5, “More or Less”, is our favorite. The 6/8 piece, based on the time, automatically peaks interest – but the highlight of the tune is how the vocal harmonies blend into a hypnotic space. Carmichael again shines with a jazzer feel.

Track 8, “We Were Trained”, is a politically tinged wonderfully written tune that describes the decline of the country as ‘our freedoms they conceal. .the end is coming soon. .i’ll ride this train til the end of the line’. Track 9 follows politics with a metaphor of the Saturday morning ritual of cartoon watching, “Saturday Morning TV Action Superstar”. The final track, “Margaret the Liar” is the long mp3 here and another great song. From start to finish, the songs are ripe for the picking and a pleasure.

Buy it on earBuzz!