Short Reviews [Jeremy - 2021 - "Distant Dream"]

This 2021 release finds Jeremy (vocals, guitars) being joined by Ken Stringfellow (vocals, guitars, bass, keyboards, drums) of The Posies in a very pleasant psychedelic and power pop romp through a dozen songs with a total running time of 41 minutes. Included in that is a cover, namely Big Star’s “Thirteen”, which is one of their most well-known and best-loved numbers, but here it fits in very well with the rest of the material and if the listener did not know the classic, they would presume this was yet another Jeremy original. He often conjures up thought of The Byrds, and this album is no different in that respect, although there are plenty of The Beatles here as well. I have no idea how many of his albums I have reviewed over the years, “lots” is the best I can come up with without tracking through every bit of writing to date, yet it is rare for me to not enjoy what I am listening to and again that is the case here. It would be very easy to equate such a large output (more than 100 and still going) with a lack of quality control yet somehow Jeremy manages to keep writing songs which are inviting and accessible, and then making them available to his fanbase. One of my favourites is actually the closing song, “You’re Amazing”, which in some ways could be taken as a love song, but this is his love for Jesus with a piano base, strummed acoustic, a psychedelic guitar melody over the top and a solid bass all combined with his best Lennon style vocals. It is the perfect end to yet another album which is wonderfully solid throughout, packed full of power pop songs which have been performed and delivered as if we are back in the late Sixties and living in California.