‘Ten Blue Songs` is Jason McNiff’s tenth album and, despite what the title would suggest, it is a record of celebration, a celebration of the musical life he has spent years trying to build.
The album opens with the nostalgic `Morning’s Come` a reflection on time slipping by, brought to mind from finding an old photo of what appears to be an old flame that is sadly long extinguished. We have in `Night Shift Blues` a song that was inspired by Italo Calvino’s short story, `Tale of a Married Couple`, set during Italy’s post-war economic boom. It`s about a couple who work different hours and the husband`s thoughts on his wife. A gentle musing with intricate picked guitar chords, a subtle double bass and a clarinet weaving in and out which gave it a dreamy jazzy klezmer like vibe.
`Lost My Way` is a slow burn with clarinet hues sprinkled throughout with lyrics that are a little surreal which move from Penge to Poland but it`s about looking for direction after a period of being adrift from life. The stripped-back storytelling of Raymond Carver and Ernest Hemingway inspired `Whoever I Am` a track that appears to be about returning to somebody close after a period of separation.
`My Dreams Are Coming Home` had that kind of Bert Jansch dreamy rambling folk like ambience about it. It`s difficult to imagine a reimagining of `Folsom Prison Blues` after Johnny Cash`s seminal version but Jason offers up a different interpretation which has a jazzy late night smoky atmosphere about it.
The singer has admitted that `Scared To Love` is the emotional centre of the album and has an expressive intensity that I felt was similar to artists such as Elliot Smith and Matthew Jay. We have a real narrative, descriptive offering with `One Last Goodbye`, a kind of cleansing road trip of a song.
`Gatling Gun` conjures images of a handheld rapid fire weapon but this composition is laid back and deeply meditative. The final cut is `3pm, Home Alone` which sounds as if it was created and recorded in the late afternoon with the dying embers of the sun on one of those recent hot summer days.
There was a slight melancholic vibe to `Ten Blue Songs` but also a deeply emotional intensity.
The album will need a few plays before it seeps in but is well worth the effort required.
Rating 8/10
