Jeremy Warmsley - The Art of Fiction (album)
Sat in a far flung recess of former communist Europe, upon a park bench of the grounds that once saw battle and confusion, the accompanying sounds that have captured my imagination and whole heartedly arrested my senses, are a collection of tales; Traditional folk song type tales, if you will, given a most modern twist by the erudite and bewilderingly talented Jeremy Warmsley.
A collection of songs, amalgamated and reworked from the previous EPs, a Pic ‘n’ Mix of tunes that take on a narrative of fictitious and partially autobiographical detail set to the most sumptuous of considered musical arrangement. From the grandiose moments of ‘I Believe in the Way That You Move’ complete with layers of vocals, Emmy the Great no less, and
cascading piano, this is one of the finest crafted songs on this album. Nay! This year!
Jeremy Warmsley has a remarkable ability to deftly converge rhythms, melodies and the luxury Royal icing of the stark vocal all coming together in most perfect moments, not just sporadically, but every time. Track after track is resplendent in glorious craft. You will struggle to find a better run of songs on an album anywhere, not a duffer until the anomalous ‘Hush’ awkwardly suffixed to the end of the record. ‘I Promise’ is the military procession percussion led track that friends of Jeremy, The Mystery Jets, would kill for or be damn proud that their fellow kindred spirit musician has executed in their musical vein with style.
Calculated bleeps and deft electrical whizzes fill out the sound throughout and the album title, ‘The Art of Fiction’ is befitting of the skill that Jeremy Warmsley posses to account details, twists and narrative in songs where the lyrics aren’t central to the whole, on previously lauded “Single of the Year” and all round bewildering Karaoke Bar story ‘5 verses’, the stirring strands of instrumentation build upon the emotive feeling and match the wordsmanship with precession. Elsewhere, raw lyrics of despair “and I loved her and I made love to her” sit alongside gorgeous piano on the punch line as title ‘I Knew That Her Face Was a Lie’. A track that offers a sombre reflective mood that maintains delicacy, yet never drifts away into levels of Schmaltz Disney.
It is without doubt that Transgressive have picked up a rough gem that one day will sparkle with critical acclaim abounding. Having been well grounded in live performance with appearances on the same stages on these home shores as charismatic Regina Spektor, The Jeremy Warmsley Effect™ is a jaw dropping rapturous like joy to behold-on record and en concert. Musical fallout for bedroom boys with an awkward disposition to manipulate frequencies and meld them with traditional instruments is TOTALLY better than any NME coined flash in the pan genre. Inspiration and forward thinking sentiments are one of the many things you will take away from this album, wherever you are lucky enough to hear it; “I’m off to make my fortune in the big old World and it won’t take long to get where I’m going.”
Review by James Ainsworth