A record entitled Jonny, by a duo entitled
Jonny is about as inconspicuous as Bradford Cox at
Primavera Sound. And despite Jonny (the LP) being the first release proper from Jonny (the band) featuring Teenage Fanclub's Norman Blake and ex-Gorky's Zygotic Mynci minstrel Euros Childs, it's a rather inconspicuous affair. In a rather wonderful little way of its own, as psychedelia meets deadpan 90s indie, Scotland meets Wales, were their respective flags splattered in Orange Juice and Super Furry Animal excrement by way of Pete Fowler respectively. From pop nuggets refracting ale-stained bravado (Goldmine) to unassuming acoustic wafts (Candyfloss), Jonny (album) is enough to vaporise lingering unfounded nationalistic prejudices and residues left to rot by the Stereophonics, The Fratellis, etc. Waiting Around For You is 60s Beatles by way of Yo Gabba Gabba, whilst English Lady is pure period drama set to the tone of earnest lullaby. The excessively relentless, spectacularly extensive Cave Dance is as hypnotic as an afternoon stranded in a K-hole with nothing but the sleeve artwork for Animal Collective's Merriweather Post Pavilion for company, before morphing into nymph-like Pied Piper breakdown, and I'll Make Her My Best Friend sounds acoustically iconic enough to fill hymn books and valleys alike. Then there's I Want To Be Around You, how your heart rate would sound were your most vital of organs composed of cotton candy. Ostentation never seemed quite so superfluous…
