Johnny Parry –
‘Break your Little Heart’ (Lost Toys Recordings)
(reviewed Dec '04)
The story so far: young Englishman finds himself with nothing to do in Toronto after being flown out to help with a cancelled ballet, hooks up with Canadian musicians in the clubs and on the streets, records an album in a matter of weeks, comes home and mixes it over the course of a year. The more interesting imagery that the man himself would use in his songs: black-and-white movie stars, Jesus, carousels.
Care and imagination are key to this debut. Always reaching for the best, opener ‘Brave and Good’ sets the scene, a delicate array of shuffling beats, tinkling piano and croaking vocals courtesy of Mr Parry. Apparently aiming for the style of a young Tom Waits, his tone makes a good contrast to some lovely backing vox: through the gentle Nick Drake acoustics of ‘Buried in Leaves’, or ‘Attached to a Ghost’ with its stuttering rhythm and exotic arrangements. The grand piano - recorded in a church - is eerie at times and always stirring, the layered vocals effective, while the production is aptly understated throughout. With ‘real’ drums only on one song - the yawning jazz fantasy 'Paws' - this slow collection has a synthetic sheen which is at first hard to grasp, but thankfully is less a 1980s ‘make your own music’ program and more of a stylish ‘OK Computer’ combination. It leaves plenty of space in the mix for the listener’s own contemplation.
With such a talent for delivering an interesting metaphor, Johnny does well to place his music as something to relax into, rather than be roused by. Example? The man even sings about a daughter in his womb! It’s hardly the mundane reality of Snow Patrol, is it? But since the only contemporary pop music in which he takes an interest is Belgian oddballs dEUS, his own sound was bound to be a little different to the nu-mainstream. Heartfelt and odd, the style reminds me of Hawksley Workman’s quieter stuff (he the flamboyant Canadian with a background in musicals, who really should be famous) and in a world that’s falling critically for Ella Guru, the Dears and Sufjan Stevens, it’s strange that Johnny’s own sound – both quiet and big, shy and ambitious – also isn’t yet more well-known.
This is certainly an album for a patient audience. ‘Break your Little Heart’ is not a difficult listen, but it’s a reflective one, definitely sentimental and slightly melancholic, and overall a delightful invitation to the Parry story. I wonder what's going to happen next?
a live review / www.johnnyparry.com / www.lostboysstudio.com
