Luxuria

Description

Luxuria is the third album by the American alternative pop band Stickman Jones, independently released in December 1999, in co-operation with TrueTunes.

From the wah-wah’d opening notes of «You Will», Luxuria makes it evident that Stickman Jones is not the same band that made last year’s brilliant folk-pop album Blinding Bright. Oh, the personnel is still the same – vocalist Annie Quick, guitarist David Sachs, accordion player Rob Curto, drummer Ethan Hartshorn, and bassist Jad Mintum. But the five of them have, together, sharpened their pop sensibilities and taken their songwriting to the next level.

The first track, the aforementioned «You Will», shows the most dramatic departure from the band’s previous style, with guitar effects, a glockenspiel (played by Danielson‘s Megan Smith), and an extremely catchy, upbeat melody. The rest of Luxuria continues the trend, although many of the other pieces hearken back to folk, especially when accordion and mandolin are thrown into the mix. Other songs, such as the effects-laden «Only Touch Me», bring to mind the more modern sounds of The Cranberries or Chasing Furies.

Quick’s distinctive, Jefferson Airplane-esque vocal is not lost in the transition, though, as one might assume. Instead of being drawn into the music, it forces the music to conform to it, making the songs markedly Stickman Jones compositions. Her vocals also match the lyrics, at times heartbreaking, and at other times sensual. These lyrics are just as poetic as those found on Blinding Bright, and more accessible for the most part. Take «Like I Do», which Jesus People USA should adopt as the official song of the Cornerstone Festival:

A friend of a friend
A song to be sung
The strangest of affections
A new horizon
A day in the sun
Luxuria surround us

An early evening
A bottle of wine
A photograph with strangers
A hard occurrence
A night in the rain
The strongest of objections

The band continues to show the influence of the British poet Edna St. Vincent Millay, most notably in the a cappella piece «Edna», whose lyrics are taken directly from her poetry.

All in all, the members of Stickman Jones have crafted a fine release which serves as the next logical step in their progression as a band. In fact, the only real problem with Luxuria is that it was released in December, too late to make anyone’s “best of 1999” list. [Michial Farmer, The Phantom Tollbooth, 1/15/2000]

Not a solo album from an aptly forenamed drummer, but a fine piece of work by a band from New York. Nice packaging, great playing on a variety of instruments which all fit neatly into the intelligent and varied arrangements giving an original sound and a number of outstanding songs, with beautiful lyrics and melodies that by second or third play return to the ear with the welcome recognition of meeting old friends, Lead singer Annie Quick’s wonderful voice reminds me at times of Sam Phillips, though the Alanis Morrisette-isms grate occasionally. The production is clear and open, and on some tracks like opener «You Will» not dissimilar to T-Bone Burnett on said SP’s ‘Cruel Inventions‘ – i.e., inventive (no pun intended!). Highlights include «Like I Do» with its interchanging time signatures, the Corrs-influenced «Shade» and «Splendor»… “Dusk is to indigo spilling velvet to wrap around the world to comfort its yearning for daylight and our longing is to be loved by the maker of all this relentless splendor.” Oh yes. [Paul Keeble, Cross Rhythms, June 2000]

CD tracklist:

01. You Will
02. Like I Do
03. Shade
04. Only Touch Me
05. Splendor
06. Edges
07. Gravity
08. Edna
09. Cooler
10. Heaven
11. Smile
12. New Year
13. Joy