Rating: NNNN
The undeniable immediacy, passion and pure spirit Jon-Rae lays down on his latest is so spectacular, it’ll take days before your soul recovers. Following the Lou Barlow lo-fi aesthetic of living room as recording studio only adds to the power of the tunes, with cracked vocals and bum notes (however few) left intact to complement Rae’s immaculately disjointed vocal delivery. While musically not unlike Jason Molina’s Songs: Ohia, Rae and his band come off more like they’re playing to a lost generation that finds the Carter Family and Cisco Houston cutting-edge. It’s wholly bereft of pretense, and when Rae turns up the gospel you’ll pray for the apocalypse, while his fractured delivery threatens the implosion of everything he’s created.
Jon-Rae and the River play the Boat Saturday (July 16).
