Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
Paris, the very name just allows the mind to conjure up so many images and perhaps apart from New York City. It is the one place on Earth to which a lot of British minds will wander and project upon as naturally as the vision of artists lining the Seine trying to be inspired by the beauty of Mon Montmartre, the glory of human engineering in the Eiffel Tower and the serenity on which great novels and poems were born and realised all clog the streets and the café’s in which French culture abounds.
John Jenkins’ latest single, The Paris Wife, plays with this imagery, the sound of an accordion and violin distantly echoing across both time and the soft vocal style employed by Mr. Jenkins on this release is wonderfully in contrast to the feeling of compelling trepidation as the thoughts of such literary icons of the 20th Century speak through the musical expressions employed by the tremendous Jon Lawton, Amy Chalmers and Helen Maher and attach extra meaning to a society of poets and novelistic bed fellows and the inspiration that goes far beyond Paula McLaine’s novel of the same name.
Names uttered, thoughts are spoken, the misguided desire and eventual fall that awaits such a person that treats their beloved in such a fashion is highlighted by the endearing Ezra Pound whose personal politics were more than rather off putting but to whom his poetry, especially that of In a Station at The Metro is as sublime and image ridden than almost anything you can compare it to in the period before World War One. It is this imagery that lines John Jenkins new single with punishing beauty, a creative drawing and look at a world now gone but somehow kept very much alive because in many British hearts, Paris is a grand lady that never changes, often veiled but her handsome features never far from the surface and the smile of a million faces line each and every crack Time has bestowed upon her with grace.
The Paris Wife is a song of true elegance and refined softness, one that burrows into the soul with calm precision and guilt free association. John Jenkins really knows how to capture a scene.
The Paris Wife is released on September 1st and is available from www.johnjenkinsmusic.com.
Ian D. Hall