Short Reviews [Jeremy - 2021 - "Live for Today"]

This is a somewhat unusual album from Jeremy Morris, as while he often has guests involved, it is rare for him to take more of a back seat in the instrumentation stakes, but here he only provides vocals and guitars. The reason for this is that he has been joined by Ken Stringfellow (The Posies, Big Star, R.E.M.) who provides vocals, guitar, bass, keyboards and drums while also producing it. I almost expected Ken to have written the songs as well, but they are 100% Jeremy, even though this was his fourth album of the year! Until one puts the CD into the player one never knows what one is going to get from Jeremy given he is such a master of so many different styles, and this one is in his wonderful power pop/melodic rock style which has been heavily influenced by the likes of The Byrds, The Beatles (later period), Big Star, The Beach Boys, Barenaked Ladies and Badfinger (and many other bands of this style, who may or may not start with the letter “B”). This is music which makes the listener smile, as the melodies and harmonies are designed for people to relax to, sitting in a pleasant summer’s evening with a pleasant beverage or three letting the world go by. Some of the songs have an acoustic heart, some keyboards/organ, but they are always lushly arranged with Jeremy’s vocals clearly over the top, with harmonies here and there. This never sounds like music from the 21st Century but instead belongs in the time 50 years ago when songs such as these were appreciated by a wide record-buying public. In an ideal world Jeremy would be as widely known as the likes of Sheeran, but as it is those who do know his material always eagerly look forward to the next release. I always find I can let his music flow over me as I don’t need to dive deeply to discover the hidden beauties and meaning as it is all there on the surface. How he maintains quality control with all these albums I have no idea, but yet again this is a delight.