No doubt there are plenty of folks out there who, when they hear the name Josh Joplin, think \u201cone-hit wonder.\u201d Sure, his penetrating, thrummalicious 2000 single \u201cCamera One\u201d was the first independent release ever to hit #1 on the AAA charts\u2026 but what else has he ever done?<\/p>\n
How about: released a dozen critically admired albums, EPs and compilations; co-founded three bands (Josh Joplin Group, Among The Oak & Ash, GpYr); written hit songs for other artists (\u201cBlue Skies Again\u201d by Jessica Lea Mayfield); authored a children\u2019s book (Polar Bears Are Cool<\/i>); and launched a second career as an award-winning independent filmmaker through his production company NarrowMoat. For starters. <\/p>\n
Joplin has also recently emerged from a decade of focus on writing, producing and filmmaking to begin making music of his own again, starting with an ecstatically received Josh Joplin Group reunion show in his old home base of Atlanta in April 2022. His new album Figure Drawing<\/i>, billed as \u201cJosh Joplin and Among The Oak & Ash,\u201d is due\u2014well, sometime this fall. (Stay tuned.)<\/p>\n
Before we move forward (and we will), though, we\u2019re moving backward. Boxing Nostalgic<\/i> was Joplin\u2019s fifth full-length release as an independent artist, before his sixth (1999\u2019s Useful Music<\/i>) was picked up, reworked and re-released by Artemis Records, with \u201cCamera One\u201d being one of the main additions. With that background in mind, Boxing Nostalgic <\/i>functions as at least a suggestion of what would lead the folks at Artemis to pull the trigger on the next go-round. Like Projector Head <\/i>before it, the album features Joplin on vocals, guitars and some keys, Geoff Melkonian on bass and other stringed instruments, and Jason Buecker on drums.<\/p>\n
The opening sequence suggests less \u201cradio hits galore\u201d than \u201caspiring Broadway producer\u201d in its showmanship and flair. Opener \u201cDe Banlieue\u201d is a 1:07 overture with muscular electric guitars and bashing drums as Joplin chants \u201cSomething brings me down\u201d until he gets to the kicker: \u201cI want to know what it is.\u201d This bit bleeds directly into the strummy fast-paced acoustic number \u201cHouses,\u201d a positively rambunctious narration of some sort of existential crisis (\u201cI still crave an answer \/ That doesn\u2019t create a question \/ But am I the only one here \/ Who hasn\u2019t learned their lesson\u201d).<\/p>\n
\u201cParade\u201d offers more of a hook, though it too sticks with Joplin\u2019s preferred acoustic base; he\u2019s a folksinger at heart, albeit one willing to build that sound up when the song calls for it. Near the end \u201cParade\u201d breaks down to feature Lee Finlayson (baritone sax and trumpet) and Gerald McHugh (sax) in a rather New Orleans outro.<\/p>\n
Following it come the title track (a rather mournful number featuring organ and cello), \u201cAre You Afraid?\u201d (an acoustic hip-hop number about Armageddon), and \u201cWaffle House Homecoming\u201d (an Edward Hopper-esque character study). \u201cSmile\u201d offers the next highlight, a lively folk-funk tune about the mask of happiness people tend to wear in public; it\u2019s earnest and rather profound and one of the stronger numbers here.<\/p>\n
The electric guitars come out to play for \u201cSomewhere,\u201d about the eternal search for identity and purpose, and then Allen Broyles\u2014a future member of the renamed Josh Joplin Group\u2014is featured on piano on the thrummy, atmospheric \u201cJuniper.\u201d Next highlight \u201cClose\u201d finds Joplin rapping urgently over aggressive acoustic riffing\u2014at least until the mid-song shift to a slower gear of quiet contemplation. \u201cAnd how do you catch faith,\u201d sings Joplin during this sequence, \u201cDoes it float from the sky like a snowflake \/ And I wonder even more \/ If no one\u2019s ever sure\u201d\u2026 before it segues back to the hyper-aggressive opening bit; it\u2019s weird and theatrical and more than a little wonderful, too.<\/p>\n
The final three tracks are equally unpredictable. First \u201cViva Voltaire\u201d offers a five minute-plus coffeehouse performance piece about Voltaire; heady stuff that no radio program director ever got within fifty yards of. Then \u201cBeautiful\u201d delivers an acoustic rave-up that veers between flirting with a paramour and spouting philosophy, before \u201cBetter Days\u201d finishes up with a sweet, sad goodbye to a true love, again featuring Broyles on piano and Melkonian on viola. At the drum-driven crescendo Joplin announces that \u201cThe end is here\u201d; indeed.<\/p>\n
The most appealing thing about Josh Joplin at this stage in his now lengthy career is that he knows who he is: intense, cerebral, uncompromising. The one time that he did compromise, on \u201cCamera One,\u201d he had a monster hit\u2026 and one gets the strong impression that he loathed that experience. He certainly shows no inclination in that direction here; Boxing Nostalgic<\/i> is a wild and wooly \u201ccoffeehouse poet does Broadway\u201d production that offers not the smallest nod to commercial considerations. There\u2019s nothing easy about it, but for the right listener in the right mood, it\u2019s quite a ride.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":34868,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[10690],"rating":[5615],"class_list":["post-46735","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-josh-joplin-band","rating-rating-b"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/46735","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\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46735"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/46735\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34868"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46735"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=46735"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=46735"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}