Is this a new genre? Lounge Americana.
I’m Kingfisher is the alias of multi-award-winning Swedish folk artist Thomas Jonsson. It is the fifth in this guise and his eight overall. “ All I wanted to do it make a happy album” he has said. It certainly is an existential, free-wheeling record that makes it very interesting listening.
It is not an album that is in a hurry to get anywhere. The songs are quite slow and languid and maybe a little one-paced for some but it is beautifully played. Piano, saxophone trumpet, and accordion are all used to good effect by several supporting musicians including Bebe Risenfors who has worked previously with Tom Waits. Percussion has been used very sparingly.
His delivery is very unusual, sometimes spoken and then morphing into a very high falsetto similar to that of Bon Iver. It can be a little disconcerting in the same track and may not be to everyone’s taste. That said it is a very accomplished piece of work with an unusual structure which pours over the listener very nicely indeed. In parts, it has a lovely jazzy feel which would go down very well in a sophisticated cocktail bar
The songs feel very much like Johansson’s musing. ”Got all the pieces, haven’t got the glue”. He says in the title track. It feels he is still searching for answers to the questions that were posed to many particularly during the pandemic “I was too angry to be afraid”
He states “Glue has nothing to do with Covid restrictions but it did force me to face who I was without the influence of live music”
Has he succeeded is making a happy album? When he says in ‘No wonder the heart was first to go’ “I’m as miserable as you predicted twenty years ago “it would suggest not. However, he has made an album that is very listenable indeed that should be enjoyed in a more quiet and reflective time perhaps with a pleasant glass of wine. It would be time well spent.
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