The Jack Of Hearts, released August 2010. 5.5/10
I saw Mr. Lionheart at Grimey's, a really great little record store in Nashville. Very intimate show, just him and his keyboardist playing to a crowd of maybe 30 people. He put on a really great show, lots of personality, gorgeous vocal harmonies, not to mention fantastic musicianship, especially from his keyboardist. So, I bought his latest album, "The Jack Of Hearts."
I was disappointed. Not that it's a BAD album. It's really not. The songs are catchy, the music's good... It's just boring. It's boring and a little fake sounding. The whole album sounds almost exactly the same: vocals and strummed acoustic guitar in the forefront, with nicely layered keys, bass, drums, vocal harmonies, and steel guitar. There's not much variety in the songs themselves, pretty straightforward verse/chorus/verse pop songs.
What really gets me is the incredible unoriginality of his sound. It's indie folk at its most derivative, from the wannabe-Simon & Garfunkel harmonies to that stupid fake European accent that ALL indie kid singer-songwriters do. It's annoying, to say the least, and the songs aren't quite good enough to make up for it.
The lyrics, at least, are really great. Very personal, very real. The songs are about everything, from dying friends to sucky friends to straightforward love. Probably my favourite song on the album, "Arkansas," is "kind of a funny story. My friend looked up her estranged father on Google, and didn't realize 'till she got there that the address was for the Arkansas State Penitentiary."
I've grown to kind of like "The Jack Of Hearts." It's not a great album by any means, but it's a good easy listening album, when you just need to relax and not think too much.
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