Jeremy Jay

"Beautiful Rebel"

BY Cam LindsayPublished Feb 28, 2008

From his an incredibly lanky frame and face, which suggest an all-star crossbreed of Cate Blanchett, Paul Dano, and somehow some additional strains of Thurston Moore’s towering DNA, Jeremy Jay is a songwriter whose height can only be outmatched by his lofty ambition.

Signed to K Recs — a most fitting marriage — Jay’s entire songbook to date gives the impression that this troubadour writes his songs in his dreams. Either that or this guy hasn’t awakened from a lifelong daydream yet. Romanticising the already romantic ’50s stylings of originators like Buddy Holly and Gene Vincent, Jay uses a grab-bag of classic instruments (Hammond organ, baritone guitar) and a sea of reverb to bring life to his Jonathan Richman-ly lyrical idiosyncrasies.

Last year’s "Airwalker” moved to the kind of rhythm that only Jagger’s strut could endorse, while Jay’s croon evoked the same amorous sarcasm as Mr. Jens Lekman. Of course, being on K, Jay knows he needs to get dirty with a little more lo-fi posturing, which he’s done on new single "Beautiful Rebel.”

Forgetting the defiant cool of "Airwalker,” Jay douses himself in bleeding fuzz guitar and transitions his voice into a passionate narrator desperately pleading to a precious James Dean-like character hellbent on some kind of delinquent action with lines like "You came out of the woodwork.” Expect to fall head over heels for this guy when his debut A Place Where We Can Go appears from the heavens — or just K Records — on May 20.

Jeremy Jay "Beautiful Rebel”

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