10 Dec 2024
UsernamePassword

Remember Me? | Join | Recover
Click here to sign in via social networking

SJD - Album Review: Saint John Divine

14 Apr 2015 // A review by Peter-James Dries

Beautiful and at times haunting in the same way Elliott Smith’s voice is haunting, there’s a cinematic quality to SJD’s newest album. Saint John Divine’s palette is subtle shades of sadness on canvas woven from the full spectrum of human emotion. You could call it melancholic, but that’d only be telling half the story. There are hints of hope poking through the paint here. Contentment and a speck or two of frivolity even.

A mellow, near acoustic affair, backed up by a band and female vocals, thisis a collection of songs, and I don’t say this lightly, that stand up next to Dobbyn, Finn (any of the Finns) and Neil Young, being cut from the same wood.  

It’s a style few aspire to these days. They’re songs that reinforce and illustrate the voice can be used as an instrument and as a surrogate guitar solo, all without the use of the obnoxious sound of Autotune. These are songs that aren’t out fighting the Loudness War, but respect the light/dark and driven/subdued dichotomies. There’s not much out there like this these days, but that helps spotlight a great album like Saint John Divine.

It’s not just the music that’s captivated me. SJD is a poetic lyricist; insightful, descriptive, occasionally esoteric, and as shown in Invisible Man occasionally tongue-in-cheek.

This is an art piece as much as it is a record. You can tell a lot of care and a lot of reverence for the music has gone into Saint John Divine. The talent was already there, naturally perhaps. The guy behind SJD is a born musician.

But plenty of people with talent are prone to blatting out a track in an hour then happily releasing it as is. There isn’t much to tracks like that, and the repeat listens aren’t as rewarding as listening to a multi-textured album like this one, which is obviously carefully composed and orchestrated.

The standout track for me was Unplugged. Outside on this cold autumn morning, the music in my ears, I can feel it rising through the turbulent atmosphere, ebbing and flowing with the waves on the horizon where space starts and the earth ends. The song builds up then hovers without the sonic clatter usually associated with a songs peak.

Saint John Divine is in store now, and available from the SJD bandcamp (http://sjdnz.bandcamp.com/).

 

About SJD

Sean Donnelly is an award-winning musician/composer currently residing in Dunedin under the Mozart Fellowship at Otago University.

Sean Donnelly has released eight albums under the nom-de-plume SJD since 1998, with many nominated for bNets, Aotearoa Music Awards, the Taite Prize and the APRA Silver Scroll - some winning too! While primarily a solo project SJD has had a long history of collaborating with James Duncan, Sandy Mill, and Chris 'O Connor.

A celebrated producer as well, Sean has worked with Don McGlashan on 2006’s Warm Hand, and 2009’s Marvellous Year. In 2011, Sean joined the Pajama Club, with Neil Finn, Sharon Finn, and Alana Skyring. He produced their eponymous debut and toured with the group Aotearoa, Australia, and the United States of America.

Visit the muzic.net.nz Profile for SJD

Releases

Sweetheart
Year: 2022
Type: Album
Saint John Divine
Year: 2015
Type: Album
Elastic Wasteland
Year: 2012
Type: Album
Dayglo Spectres
Year: 2008
Type: Album
Songs From A Dictaphone
Year: 2007
Type: Album
Southern Lights Pic n Mix Version
Year: 2005
Type: Album
Southern Lights
Year: 2004
Type: Album
Lost Soul Music
Year: 2001
Type: Album
3
Year: 1999
Type: EP

Other Reviews By Peter-James Dries

Ra Charmian - Album Review: Waiata Wairua
08 Oct 2024 // by Peter-James Dries
Waiata Wairua is an album that wouldn’t feel out of place performed in a late night jazz hall in some alternate history where the successes of the Maori battalion lead to a proliferation of Te Reo worldwide. The sort of interest that saw your dad singing in French in the 60's, when Mireille Mathieu was knocking about.
Read More...
Ben Lloyd - Album Review: Leap of Faith
26 May 2024 // by Peter-James Dries
For over 30 years, this self-taught rocker from Mt Maunganui has been writing music. Now, for the first time since 2013, we finally get to hear his songs.
Read More...
Yann Le Dorré - Album Review: The Circus is Closed
19 Dec 2023 // by Peter-James Dries
“We are Sex Bob-Omb and we're here to make you think about death and get sad and stuff!” - Scott Pilgrim vs.
Read More...
Sanoi - Album Review: Echoes Of Home
25 Nov 2023 // by Peter-James Dries
Electronica offers no escapism for me. It’s more of what I already have.
Read More...
Throng - EP Review: Decoherence
20 Oct 2023 // by Peter-James Dries
You know that thing where the letter B has a personality, or words have textures and colours? That’s called synaesthesia.
Read More...
Fortress Europe - Album Review: Old World
10 Oct 2023 // by Peter-James Dries
Have you ever been torn between listening to Mozart or Periphery? Does Epica have too much of that darn singing for your tastes?
Read More...
Yurt Party - Album Review: Yurt Party
07 Sep 2023 // by Peter-James Dries
It sure isn't summer, and this is really not the Balkans, but Yurt Party’s new self-titled album refutes that. Back with another one of them Balkan rocking beats, Yurt Party’s debut is jazzy, erratic, and full of zest and energetic grooves, with flavour notes of ska, dub, and bergamot.
Read More...
day13n - Album Review: /7/13/7/
06 Aug 2023 // by Peter-James Dries
I’m too old for this world. We’ve devolved to the point where music is only as good as the soundtrack to your 10 second TikTok, and the thirty thousand copies recycling the idea.
Read More...
View All Articles By Peter-James Dries

NZ Top 10 Singles

  • APT.
    ROSÉ And Bruno Mars
  • DIE WITH A SMILE
    Lady Gaga And Bruno Mars
  • BIRDS OF A FEATHER
    Billie Eilish
  • TASTE
    Sabrina Carpenter
  • I LOVE YOU, I'M SORRY
    Gracie Abrams
  • ESPRESSO
    Sabrina Carpenter
  • SAILOR SONG
    Gigi Perez
  • LOSE CONTROL
    Teddy Swims
  • A BAR SONG (TIPSY)
    Shaboozey
  • GOOD LUCK, BABE!
    Chappell Roan
View the Full NZ Top 40...
muzic.net.nz Logo
100% New Zealand Music
All content on this website is copyright to muzic.net.nz and other respective rights holders. Redistribution of any material presented here without permission is prohibited.
Report a ProblemReport A Problem