{"id":41343,"date":"2009-02-05T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2009-02-05T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/spaceman\/"},"modified":"2009-02-05T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2009-02-05T00:00:00","slug":"spaceman","status":"publish","type":"review","link":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/spaceman\/","title":{"rendered":"Spaceman"},"content":{"rendered":"

The area of musical influences is tricky to negotiate. When you come right down to it, whether consciously or unconsciously, you have the choice to simply homage (or rip-off\u2026) the artists you like; or, alternatively, to instill the qualities of what influences you in your own music, interpreting it in a different way. In theory, it sounds pretty simple. In reality, it\u2019s not. There\u2019s that hazy line between what constitutes an influence and what\u2019s just plain plagiarism. <\/o:p><\/p>\n

With New Jersey multi-instrumentalist Jordan Carp, his third release Spaceman <\/i>lands squarely in the former category. The influences are all there, the littered evidence of Pink Floyd, The Beatles and Radiohead, vocally maybe even some Beck, but present in a way that doesn\u2019t overshadow his own style — a side serving of influence, if you will.<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Spaceman <\/i>seeps the celestial from title track opener to closing song \u201cRotten Girl\u201d with music that is both hypnotic and detached. But in case you were worried that you were bordering on the dangerous territory of latter-day Radiohead, the album is interjected with upbeat piano\/guitar tracks that allow it to steer far clear. <\/o:p><\/p>\n

From phlegmatic second song \u201cLightning And Thunder\u201d onwards, Spaceman<\/i> seems to war between these two styles, and in the end it\u2019s the more accessible up-tempo material that seem to win out. The melodies of tracks like \u201cFantasies Of You\u201d with its catchy piano intro and a cappella finish and the acoustic ballad \u201cNYC Skyline\u201d seem to stand out against the pall of \u201cThe Poet\u201d and \u201cRotten Girl.\u201d Highlight moments on Spaceman<\/i> include \u201cFar Superior Nose\u201d and \u201cWhy Do You Do It?\u201d.<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Carp\u2019s lyrics prove to be one of the most interesting aspects of the album. \u201cFar Superior Nose\u201d contends with the pretension of wine tasting with lines like \u201cMaybe he knows what he\u2019s talking about \/ But all of this lingo I can do without \/ Smoky and smooth, complex and corky \/ Give me a stem full of Carlo Rossi \/ Because I can\u2019t smell any asparagus \/ I should never have read those tasting notes,\u201d while \u201cWhy Do You Do It?\u201d offers a quirky chorus: \u201cWhere is your MySpace? How do you show your work?\u201d. His songs play out like unabridged stories, coming across fresh and earnest. <\/o:p><\/p>\n

Overall, the cosmic style of music running steadily through the album gels Spaceman<\/i> together well as a record. \u201cDid you take your chance or did you play it safe?\u201d Carp sings in \u201cThe Poet,\u201d and whatever the outlook on this album,<\/i> Carp definitely can\u2019t be accused of the latter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":72,"featured_media":29739,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[8342],"rating":[5614],"class_list":["post-41343","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-jordan-carp","rating-rating-c-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/41343","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/72"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41343"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/41343\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29739"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41343"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41343"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=41343"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=41343"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}