Jour Majesty – Three Winks

I’ve had conversations with fellow friends and peers about similar music to what’s happening here on the Jour Majesty EP throughout the past of my experience.  It’s this kind of soft, well-played, melodic & acoustically driven music that I’ve maintained to all of these people from day one – you would have to be an incredible dick to walk into a room and turn music like this off, or even down in volume.  Even if it’s not your genre, I’m still saying this applies; the music of Jour Majesty is completely inoffensive and should, by that measure, be appealing to an extremely large mass of music fans.

And it’s current – let’s face it, this particular sound is a very large part of what’s happening out in the music scene right now.  As the Three Winks EP opened into the first track “Angel,” my wife was in the next room over and quickly wanted it turned up for her to listen as well.

Now first of all – believe me when I say this is a completely all-to-RARE experience…always met with instant compliance.  For reference’s sake, the last time this request was made was when we reviewed the album from Shagpile, earlier this year.  Without having done any research on Jour Majesty at this point, we debated the points of sound out loud, citing influences we could hear in the music.  For a moment during “Angels,” and inside my first impressions, I was hearing the popped-out version of what would have happened if Eddie Vedder had taken the Into The Wild soundtrack down that road.  But admittedly, that was only the guitar – vocally, lead singer Michael Perry was heading in a much more pronounced, clean & articulate style…

We continued into the next song, “Photograph” before we settled into some stronger comparisons.  She mentioned the subtle melodies and lyrically-driven folk-music of Damien Rice right before what should have stood out to me further, caught me instantly; The Head And The Heart.  With the extra instrumentation coming drifting in and out of these stripped-down pop tunes, each song expands with that classic modern-day folk-pop stomp that continues to excite ears around the globe.

Largely, Jour Majesty represents the heart & soul and spectacular songwriting efforts of Michael Perry.  A little research into his current bio confirmed those inspirations we found in the music, specifically The Head And The Heart; which without we would not have new music from Jour Majesty to enjoy right now.  Seeing their first opportunity to perform for a large audience opening the show for Death Cab For Cutie before they hit the big time, changed Perry’s disillusioned view of the industry and thankfully inspired him so powerfully that he came back around to making beautiful music of his own once again.

Together with a handful of players & friends and armed with a fresh-perspective and new-found positivity, Perry brought his lyrically-driven pop-folk tunes back to vibrant life with a focus on his relatable storytelling and easy-going, comforting melodies.

“Dancing Shoes” reveals Jour Majesty at their most hook-driven moments.  The playing and production on this EP are literally flawless throughout the entire set of four.  Even vocally, there’s no other choices I could hear myself making – I think Perry and his crew have truly covered all the angles here in making sure that each and every track had its own unique & creative sounds and left no stone unturned when it came to making sure that they came out crystal-clear through the vocals, music & production overall.

It wraps up with “Idaho,” which is a perfect sounding send-off to this quick introduction to the music of Jour Majesty.  Nearly evoking an Elvis Costello sound through his vocals, Perry adds just the right amount of true-Americana style into the music without it ever dominating the sound entirely, giving himself and his bandmates the freedom to explore and drift to the boundaries and fringe of their pop-folk borders.  The extra filters added to Perry’s vocals in this song halfway through really add to the performance on this one, not only updating the sound of this style even further, but also not taking away from anything else happening in this beautiful ending to Three Winks; Perry uses this sound as an added instrument and the effect really works incredibly well in this final tune.

Will we hear MORE from Jour Majesty in the future?  Well – I can only hope we will!  Though there hasn’t been a lot of initial communication between us, we’ve got Jour Majesty on schedule for one of our incredible video-interviews upcoming on SBS Live This Week; a project that many of you know has already seen the retirement of a few bands & artists, but also the rise of the creative and highlights of the real inspiration that people feel when truly connecting with their art & music.  After a thorough listen through Three Winks and hearing what Perry has had to say through his tone, sentiment & songwriting – I’m definitely excited to hear more from him and learn even more about this project, Jour Majesty.  Keep your fingers crossed and let’s hope we’ve found another artist out there that really has established that deep, impactful & amazing connection to his music and we come up with another great show between us.  If the sheer amount of focus and heart on this EP are any indication…we’re in store for something truly fantastic as we become another part of the long musical journey that Jour Majesty is about to embark on as these tunes continue to find their way to more & more ears and audiences around the globe.

Find out more about Jour Majesty at:  https://www.facebook.com/pages/Jour-Majesty/319801434835162

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