Yeah, he doesn’t seem to get photographed much, this lad…
[Video][Myspace]
[7.22]
Tal Rosenberg: Luxury on high speed. The dance floor on low speed. Just cruising. Gorgeously.
[9]
Matt Cibula: Adorable. Sublime. Slightly boring.
[6]
Ian Mathers: This smoothly executed slow burn sounds kind of like the kind of track I imagine Daft Punk’s “Emotion” was fondly making fun of. Nothing much happens for six minutes, and the singer seems kind of disengaged for the sentiment she’s expressing, but it’s hard to resent the sweet spot Jones spends so much time massaging here.
[6]
Martin Skidmore: The bassline is very close to Chic’s magnificent “Good Times”, as is the guitar playing, but this is subdued house, with a rather lovely and soulful female vocal. I feel as if it needed something more in the music, or some more words for the vocalist to sing, as I got a bit bored after halfway, but there is a warmth here that I like.
[6]
Rodney J. Greene: Somewhat slavish nu-disco with a ghost-in-the-machine vocal and synthonic bridges that compulsively warp between key signatures in search of an unattainable higher level. Jones manages to do everything right and this is totally enjoyable, but, like those synths, he never quite finds the spark he’s looking for.
[8]
Martin Kavka: This DFA-distributed house track is most notable for having key changes that come out of left field the first time you hear it. Subsequent listens are a letdown.
[5]
Michaelangelo Matos: You can dismiss this as mere retro if you like. It sounds precisely, utterly like circa-’82 roller-boogie electro, with the same guitar plucks and Prelue Records-era plastic synths, both warmer in retrospect, and in Jones’s hands more overtly melancholy, which the low-medium tempo aids. So little changes musically that when the chords switch up at 2:57 on the bridge (haha, “bridge”) the shift is unexpectedly huge, an emotional surge in a track pregnant with feeling but doing its best to keep everything in check. The throwback quality makes sense for a song whose only lyric (the title, not counting the occasional “oooh, na na”) communicates the kind of longing only deep immersion in memory can soothe. My single of the year.
[10]
Frank Kogan: I remember back in the day Boris Midney had a project appropriately called USA-European Connection. This reminds me of that sensibility, an international night world of lounges and discotheques and late-night bachelor pads, all painted smooth and slightly mysterious.
[8]
Mallory O’Donnell: The DFA label, despite any flirtation with trendiness or hype, have maintained the kind of quality control that Prelude or Easy Street must be futuractively jealous of. Which is to say they’re nothing more or less than the best disco label around, which is saying quite a lot. “Living Without Your Love” is a fine, if unsurprising outing, with a lovely vocoder-rippled lead vocal that will make you continue to never want to hear anything autotuned again. That said, it’s not a patch on the A-side, a melting boogie caramel of sweet wonky perfection.
[7]