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John Paul Jones - The Thunderthief CD (album) cover

THE THUNDERTHIEF

John Paul Jones

 

Heavy Prog

3.44 | 52 ratings

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snobb
Special Collaborator
Honorary Collaborator
3 stars Third JP Jones solo album ( I count his duet album with Diamanda Galas as her album, for sure) is music for his fans mostly. And for fans of Robert Fripp, which participates on one song (Leafy Meadows) here. This song is album's opener. Fripp's guitar sounds very KC-like, for both good and band. I like this sound, but all of KC fans listened to it so many times!

Second song has vocals (JP Jones himself), I am not sure that was good idea. John also plays all string (big list) and all keys. In fact, all the musicians team is duo (JP Jones plus drummer Terl Bryant ) with three guest guitarist , each just played on one or two tracks.

The music is complex and muddy, but with real lack of composition. It looks JP enjoy playing so many instruments, mixing the sound in one final product. But too often it is more attractive to himself, than to listener.

"Ice Fishing at Night" ( how many of you know what does it means? I love it!) is a ballade, intention was good, but the musical result is very limited.

"Daphne" has it's roots somewhere in Led Zeppelin's vaults."Angry Angry" shows JP going punky. Plenty of dirty energy in sound, but the result is too faceless again ( or it was the initial idea - just to record real punk opus, which should be faceless, dirty and full of energy).

"Down to the River to Pray " is bluegrass song played acoustic with some eastern scent, sounds better than you can expect. "Shibuya Bop" is a hard fast instrumental with Nick Beggs on Chapman Stick. Sounds as LZ goes KC.

The final song "Freedom Song" (real song - with JP singing) is acoustic Eastern ballade.

Overall, the album is interesting work for LZ,KC and JP Jones heavy fans. Far from masterpiece, it brings some interesting moments from music and musicians we love. Don't think it has any attraction for newcomers .

snobb | 3/5 |

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