Jon Crocker – Seven Days, Six Nights
Greydawn Records
I knew this would come up eventually. I knew that one fateful day I would be asked to review a concept album.
I hate concept albums. I think that they’re pretentious and aggravating – the musical equivalent of that guy at a party who just can’t help how much better he is than you. In fact, I’ll even go so far as to say I hate the concept of concept albums. They should have ended after Tommy, or better yet, before it.
With that said, Jon Crocker’s Seven Days, Six Nights is mellow, easy to listen to and overall better than I expected. The album has a song for each day of the week, and at the very least they’re certainly emotionally evocative.
“Monday” is a good start to a good album, as melodic broken piano chords give way to a progression of guitar chords played on both acoustic and electric. Crocker plays all the instruments on this album and does so with some skill, though his singing leaves a bit to be desired in spots. “Monday” is almost-radio-friendly pop with a sort of brit-rock meets early Death Cab feel to it. Only its length, at an impressive six minutes 15 seconds, might give mainstream DJs pause.
I think “Wednesday” is a song about two people who no longer love one another, and a good one at that. The instrumental prowess that Crocker demonstrated in the album’s opening track is paired with an impressive turn of the phrase. This song is full of memorable lines like, “You open your mouth and all I hear are pianos playing/feel like we’re in some silent film.”
This album has done the impossible: it’s made me like Monday. Check it out – it’s worth your time.
-Brian Burns
brian@burnsdesign.com