SUDDEN PRAYERS MAKE GOD JUMP

According to the liner notes the band released "Growing" after "Keeping Up". Anyway after a string of broken promises from the management company the stress started to build amongst the band members and they broke up. Eventually the Jones brothers decided to make one last album under the name JONESY. They brought in some session musicians and decided this was going to be their creative statement. So yeah they did a concept album. This is about a guy having a mental breakdown, and they take us through the different stages he goes through. So they recorded it but the label wouldn't let them out of their contract even though the band felt they had breached the contract. They couldn't afford to fight them in court so they walked away from it all. Then to make things worse someone stole the master tapes. So what we have here is a copy from an old cassette. So needless to say the sound quality isn't the best.

"Dark Room" opens with outbursts of sound that come and go until it kicks in before a minute. An instrumental break after 2 minutes with lots of sax is good. Ripping guitar before 3 1/2 minutes then a calm. Reserved vocals join in. Emotional guitar before 5 1/2 minutes then it picks back up.

"Running" opens with drums and people yelling in the background. The music kicks in. Blistering guitar 2 minutes in followed by a sax solo. "Bad Dreams" opens with organ? it's hard to tell, then reserved vocals join in. It picks up after 2 1/2 minutes with a strong BEATLES flavour. "The Lights Have Changed" is uptempo to start before it settles and vocals join in. Contrasts continue. "Old Gentleman's Relief" is experimental to start then strummed guitar and vocals take over. Not a fan of this at all. "Anthem" features piano and vocals. Backing vocals too, and again the BEATLES come to mind.

I'm thinking if this sounded really good i'd give it 3 stars, but because of the poor sound quality 2 stars is all I can muster.

As the story goes, the master tapes of Jonesy's would-be fourth album got stolen by some nasty scoundrel disappearing in the night. That theft left Jonesy in rather dire straits, with the record company reluctant to givet hem a new go in the studio. As the band lacked sufficient funds aswell everything ground to a halt and Jonesy disbanded. All that seems true enough and it left us wondering how that album would have sounded like. Well, we can get a glimpse of what was to be expected by listening to this album of raw and unpolished recordings, supposedly some kind of demos, I gather.

Jonesy was a good, sometimes brilliant prog band from the UK. Not entirely groundbreaking they still managed to fuse jazz, folk and hard rock into a very agreeable blend of progressive music. I think their second album 'Keeping up' is a glorious piece of British 70's prog and their finest hour at that. While the third album lacked somewhat it still delivered high quality music to enjoy.

This demo-like album gives us hints of what to expect from Jonesy. The sound quality is below average, as is to be expected by some 40 years old reels of plastic. It sounds as though someone recorded a concert and released it as a bootleg. Quality wise it can be compared to your average soundboard recording. The sound is, however, not something to be bothered by. It is what lies beneath the dust and wrinkled plastic that is the real treasure.

The opening 'Dark room' is a fantastic piece of eerie progressive music. Very dense and powerful it delivers in spades. There is a frantic saxophone solo that is great. The vibraphone is amazing and provides a spacious rest amidst all the frantic instrumentation. I get a kind of Family-vibe in the vibraphone but apart from that it is all Jonesy.

'Running' is an okay track. As the title suggests it is a fast paced number and quite alright. The flute is terrific. 'Bad dreams' is a sort of slow song with some Beatles influences to be heard but in all it is a great track, actually. Dark and dense. '

'The lights have changed' is a jazz-rock song with good keyboards and is really a very good track. I love my jazz-rock so this track gives me great pleasure. In the middle there is a vocal part that I do not fully agree with but it is soon over, leading into a keyboard playing a nice tune. Good stuff.

'Old gentleman's relief' is a Beatles-ish/ late 60's type of song and really the weakest track. It is not bad but it is average. The ending 'Anthem' is quite a beautiful ending to this album. It sort of sums it up.

All in all this is really amazing to be listening to. Just think, here I sit listening to an album that really should not have been in existence. Yet here it is, like a blue print for something that really didn't happen. The thivieng bastard managed to grab the final product and how wonderful wouldn't it have been to be listening to that one, to hear it as it was supposed to be. As things stand this is all that remains and for me that is quite enough. Just like Cromwell tried to smash and destroy everything that did not agree with him, the thief failed in erasing these songs from the slate of time. Just like Cromwell failed. This album is good but not essential to proggers in general. If you like Jonesy I think you ought to listen, though. It is a great and quite moving testament to one of Britain's most underrated bands.

Album of 1974

So, this is not 2002 year album as you can think. It's true authentic sound from the beginning of the 70s (sometimes even late 60s), but with some defect or reverberation effect. Not very annoying and notable, maybe even this was planned by the authors.

"Dark Room" the most proggy composition of the album with powerfull jazz inclusions. There are some places with polymetres. In the middle there is slowly, quiet and gentle moment, it's beautiful. "Running" - cool action and fast song, very catchy and not so plain chorus, also good instrumental part. "Bad Dreams" has not trivial structure, psychedelic vocals - sounds atmospheric. "The Lights Have Changed" - the sound is very reminiscent of the early YES and for me it is rather a plus, love vocals like this. But this song has many repetitions, elongated ending - i don't like this pop character. However, there're drums syncopation, very like it! "Old Gentleman's Relief" - interesting couplet/chorus bundle: gloomy and unattractive gives way to melodic, captivatingly pleasant BEATLES-style vocal. Which is remarkable - there aren't last chorus at the end! A matter of respect. "Anthem" again BEATLES-sound vocals farewell song. Lovely piano and flute duet which replaced by bass and guitar and all this in permanent repetition. A bit dullish and it's not the strongest ending of good album, but it's not a failure.

So, it's pretty not bumpy album, there are not surprises. Also there aren't really complex prog rock things and really masterpiece dizzy parts. But it's enjoyable album who like proto/early-prog or some prog-related bands from late 60-s/early 70-s. There are not really filler moments, all time sounds organically and it's really nice. Even some top albums cannot can't brag about it. I would like to pay special attention to fact, that album is strictly "English-sound" without cheery and identical blues/rock 'n' roll filler songs. This is really a big plus, the album is listened holistically without some irritate parts. Good addition to JONESY discography, do not skip it, give a chance!

Almost 4 stars (about 3,75)