Jamison Young

Continuing the great Antipodean tradition of melodic singer-songwriters, Sydney’s Jamison Young has put together an accomplished debut album that he describes as electronic folk. That label is a little misleading because despite the simplicity of the songs and the inevitable guitar, there has been a lot of studio jiggery-pokery added afterwards to make Shifting Sands of a Blue Car sounds much more dynamic than just a guy with a guitar. Much of the studio work was done by producer, the Church’s Tim Powles, and it does help to give the album a more unique sound. Sometimes the strange mix of sounds works better than others and on occasion it threatens to overwhelm the material. But the songs that are left almost naked are the dullest on the record. With the combination of Young’s voice and the slow meandering songs, there’s a kind of trippy feel to most of the songs that echo moments of the Beatles and Joseph Arthur. Think of it this way — when the biggest complaint about an album is the not-very-good artwork, it has to be worth at least a quick listen and that is the case with Shifting Sands Of A Blue Car.