Dennis Davison - The Book Of Strongman

 

I am a massive fan of The Jigsaw Seen, so I was naturally excited to hear lead vocalist and songwriter Dennis Davison's debut solo album. I wasn't disappointed. Davison has produced an album of great lyrical depth and quality.

The album is rooted in 60's orientated Pop Rock, but that takes up the whole gamut. Beat, Prog, Psych and even Folk shades of Pop. The fact that Davison plays everything himself is even more remarkable. This added to his long time strength as a vocalist provides a fine listen.

The easiest way to describe these delights is to say if you read Shindig, you will absolutely adore this. The Book Of Strongman isn't a Jigsaw Seen album, although there are plenty of elements of the band. The Guitar isn't as prominent and the feel is slightly darker, intriguingly so. 

This is storytelling of the highest standard. Unusual themes backed with mellotron and analogue synths. Even a song as acoustic as The Spoken Word is enhanced by these sounds. Aberdeen Vista is reminiscent of the great 70s Singer Songwriters with a wonderful mandolin accompaniment.

Auras is a cracking slab of Psych and Museum Piece even has electronic beats, so there is no lack of variation. In The Folly Of Youth is splendid gentle Prog. The real strength though is when Davison lets rip. Strongman And Sonny James is memorable Psych Pop and a great album opener.

Shadow On A Tall tree is the obvious single, a melodic masterpiece with word packed verses and a big chorus. It is the most Pop that the album gets, but that's no complaint. It is wonderful to listen to an album that is intelligent, both lyrically and instrumentally strong. The Book Of Strongman is an outstanding offering.

You can listen to and buy the album here. You can find out more about Dennis Davison here.

......................................

The Jigsaw Seen - The Discriminating Completist

I first discovered Jonathan Lea and Dennis Davison in 1994. As a Material Issue fanatic, I'd read that they were going to be on a Bee Gees Tribute album. I've never been that fond of Tribute albums, I've rarely seen the point, but I bought that and it was a revelation. Melody Fair is probably the best album of it's type, the quality of the songs and the artists who covered them.

Lea and Davison produced that album and I was so enamoured with the content that I wanted to find out more about them. Finding out that they were in The Jigsaw Seen, I managed to get hold of the My Name Is Tom EP and I've never looked back since. Los Angeles's finest have never let me down. They are one of the great Psych Pop bands and now the quality has never let up.




The cover of Melody Fair is here and a wonder it is too. It is included as one of 12 songs in this Rarities collection. Their new single is included (above) and their first single, Tom Currier and Teddy Freese joined the band in 1993 and all four have been a constant since.

Songs Mama Used To Sing remains one of my favourite albums ever and I've been delighted that the band have been fairly prolific in the past few years. The four albums since 2010's Bananas Foster have all been top notch. They are masters in their field.





So here is a fantastic opportunity for the people who picked up on the band more recently to own these rarities and for older fans to get hold of these songs and not bust their wallet. I'd also add that people who trust my opinion can dip in here as the whole collection stands up in it's own right.

In these harder times for bands, The Jigsaw Seen have also been inventive with their marketing, including a fairly unique subscription service which provides back catalogur, future releases and exclusive items. You can find out about that here.




The album is available to buy as a download everywhere. My preferred method is always as a CD, which you can buy here. You can find out more about The Jigsaw Seen here.