Everyone who hasn't followed Stephen Jones's career (as Babybird, as himself, or as a combination of the two) has missed out on an intriguing, exceptional, and unquestionably strange series of albums. Self-releasing his own lo-fi demos in England in the 1990s (and, many would argue, singlehandedly beginning the lo-fi revolution that followed), Babybird released their first full-length album, “Ugly Beautiful,” in 1996. The album was chock full of singles, but only one (“You're Gorgeous”) broke the charts in the U.K. Stateside, Babybird wasn't even a blip on the radar.
Two more albums, “There's Something Going On” and “Bugged,” followed over the next few years, but Babybird never really caught on. Jones went on to do another lo-fi album in 2003 and released some of his soundtrack work in the intervening years. But, for those of us who longed for another Babybird release, it looked as if we were going to be eternally disappointed.
Enter “Between My Ears There's Nothing But Music,” released in the U.K. on October 25th. Although I doubt that this album will ever hit the ground in the U.S., serious music lovers should venture over to amazon.co.uk to pick up their copy. “Between My Ears...” finds Stephen Jones working with longtime collaborators Luke Scott and Rob Gregory; the finished product, while reminiscent of some of his later works as Babybird, manages to retain lo-fi charm and hi-fi quality. The album opens with the somber “Too Much,” as beautiful a song as Jones has ever written, and a surprising choice for an album opener. A much more traditional song such as the catchy “Snails” or “Shoutabout” would have sounded less out of place at the beginning of the album, but these songs would not have laid the groundwork for what was ahead as successfully. “Old Skin” chugs along with its percussion samples and glockenspiel; “Divorce Song,” one of Jones's most biting, manages to be both poignant and eyebrow-raisingly strange at the same time. “When the diamonds in your smile fall out,” he sings, “when the laughter in this house runs away / And the men come to take away the t.v. / And you find yourself changing the locks / And the light in my face, can't just be for me / Like the gun in your hand, just can't be for me.”
A more emotional album than “You're Gorgeous” and a more playful album than “There's Something Going On,” Jones's most recent effort is not only a good place from which to continue his career, but also a good place for new fans to start listening. Let's hope that “Between My Ears...” raises everyone's awareness of Babybird's music and reminds those of us who have been listening to him for more than 10 years why we've spent so much time, money, and love, love, love. |