Josh T. Pearson album review 9 February 2011

6 Days From Tomorrow: Josh T. Pearson - Last of the Country Gentlemen

(by Si)

http://www.6dft.net/2011/02/08/josh-t-pearson-last-of-the-country-gentlemen/

It lives!  I’ve lost all my contact info and my email’s gone all weird, but that’s the price of progress, I guess… I now have another largely unexpected backlog of things that I had either forgotten I’d ordered or that had arrived earlier than expected.

In the latter of these two categories comes this absolute pearler of a record that seemingly isn’t out until next month, but that very kindly arrived last week thanks to the lovely mail-order types at Rough Trade records, who also see fit to add an exclusive bonus disc into the bargain. And given that my sole prior recollection of this artist was from a singularly intense support slot from a few years ago, this debut album is a huge surprise and yet another indication that 2011 is shaping up to be a brilliant and incredibly varied year for amazing music…

My only contact with Josh T. Pearson prior to this was as support to the Soulsavers back in July 2007, and the lasting impression I got from this was ‘pleasantly intimidating’ – plenty of Fire and Brimstone going on from an imposing figure totally committed to his performance and a guitar style bordering on destruction, coupled with a polite grace between songs, most memorably when he humbly introduced his cover of Joy Division’s Love Will Tear Us Apart as if he needed permission from the Manchester audience to play it.

And now, almost four years later, his debut solo album has arrived and contains all the charm, passion and frailties of that performance. Last Of The Country Gentlemen may ‘only’ contain seven tracks, but it runs for almost an hour bookended by two short-ish (by comparison) songs, opener Thou Art Loosed with its refrain of “I’m off to save the World / At least I can hope” and closing with Drive Her Out‘s plea of “Help me and drive her out of my mind”, and takes in more dark roads and guilt-ridden souls than most artists can manage in whole careers.

It’s an incredibly intense album.  The voice may be mostly quiet and reflective, and the guitar and occasional, sparingly-used string accompaniment plaintive and sorrowful, but it’s a record that takes the listener through some harrowing places such as the literally threatening Woman, When I’ve Raised Hell (“Don’t make me rule this home with the back of my hand”) and in Sweetheart, I Ain’t Your Christ where Simon and Garfunkel song titles are quoted at the end of a song rejecting someone who adores the tale’s main character with the line “It ain’t Christmas time it’s Easter, Honey Bunny”.

There’s no request for pity here either.  The beautiful Country Dumb (the album’s highlight so far for me, and deserving lead single at a sprightly 10 minutes, released on the 20th of February) is a matter-of-fact statement of position and outlook, and even the apparently ultra-personal Sorry With a Song asks for no more than acceptance rather than forgiveness.

This could all be utterly depressing if it wasn’t for the honesty (however true or otherwise the artist may be to the character in each song, there’s no denying the conviction) and beauty of each story’s delivery both in terms of the vocals and of the guitar-playing that embrace them.  There’s also a streak of very black humour at play in places as well such as the title of Honeymoon’s Great!  Wish You Were Her, which again tells a sad story but retains enough knowing to realise that the uncontrollable situation has an element of the outwardly absurd to the onlooker.

The bonus disc is a comparatively breezy affair, flying through the album’s main five songs in a mere twenty-something minutes and largely replacing the acoustic guitar of the original versions with an electric, giving each track a more urgent slant and a feel that is more in keeping with the memory I have of his live performance.  There’s no lack of emotion in these briefer renditions however, and this extra is almost as essential as the main album and well worth picking up.

It’s a stunning and vaguely disturbing record, but its sincerity is its charm and the music is pure, undiluted beauty.  Maybe not something to be playing in the car on a sunny day, but definitely something that will be waiting for you to come round to its blackened charms to soothe your soul, even if it has no intention of saving it.  There have already been some breathtaking albums so far this year, and this is pretty much at the top of the pile.