REVIEW: "PAGING MR. PROUST" THE JAYHAWKS

Tweet

Paging Mr. Proust  The Jayhawks

Thirty Tigers Records

Music Grade: A

Pressing Grade: A+

Cross the Beatles and the Beach Boys with the Byrds and the Eagles—and you’ll get something close to the Jayhawks. And yet, three decades after the band's debut, when you Google “The Jayhawks,” the Kansas basketball team of the same name comes up first. Maybe someday this perennially underrated band won’t be flying under the radar?

Few bands have responded to ongoing turmoil as well as the Jayhawks, and Paging Mr. Proust  proves again how well co-founder Gary Louris responds to personnel changes.  His relationship with longtime partner Mark Olson has been on- and off-again for many years—and Olson is absent from this outing. 

It's a non-issue here-- Paging Mr. Proust offers more lyrical depth and more irresistible hooks than 2011’s Mockingbird Time which had Olson onboard. The new album honors the Jayhawks DNA while looking forward with renewed vitality.  The Beatlesque “Lovers of the Sun” is the standout among many stellar tracks –it’s soaring harmonies and spirit will put hope in your day.

The 180 Gram vinyl pressing by Nashville-based Thirty Tigers Records is superb, dead quiet, and delivers a wealth of sonic detail.

"The Sound of Lies," a Great 1997 Jayhawks Album, Also Did Not Include Mark Olson