Short Reviews [Jeremy - 2022 - "A Wonderful Surprise"]

Jeremy Morris releases albums at an incredible rate, with four a year being fairly common, and one of the reasons he manages to do this is not only is he a wonderful musician, singer and songwriter, but he works with different people depending on what he is wanting to achieve. This is the third album of his I have reviewed recently where he has been joined by Ken Stringfellow (Big Star, Posies, REM) and while Jeremy provides vocals and guitar, Ken does everything else. Mind you, the songs are all fully credited to Jeremy and this filled with the lush power pop and psychedelic songs we have come to expect from him when he is this mood. I will never understand how he manages to release so many albums, in different styles, yet maintains solid quality control throughout. Also, these are not just available digitally – everything I have ever reviewed from Jeremy has been from physical product; back in the old days it used to be pre-recorded cassettes (which I still have) and these days it is CDs, but never a download link. This means there is a significant investment in time, energy and money, yet I am sure he must always be working on multiple albums at the same time, the one he has just released, the one which is at the pressing plant, the one being mixed, and the ones being recorded. Yet even with that workload one knows that the name Jeremy on the cover means the listener is going to experience yet another wonderful release. Influenced by the likes of Big Star, The Beatles, The Byrds, Posies, Pink Floyd, this is a lush recording with jangly guitars, loads of layers, harmony vocals and one well-crafted pop song after the other. In many ways it is difficult to realise this was released the same year as ‘From Here To Eternity” as here the guitars have been brought back to just be accompaniment, there are plenty of acoustics and 12-strings, and nothing is longer than 4:27, so it is tailor made for the audience who don’t want their music too long. “Romantic Fever” has a breakdown within it which is classic later period Beatles, and makes me smile whenever I play it, but to be honest every song on here is uplifting and an absolute delight. For all fans of this style of music.