Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Richard Jay

Richard Jay is a 16 yr. old musician from Midlands, UK. His music is richly layered and highly synth based. There is something about the end result that is such a throwback to me; it reminds me of good eighties pop music, but filtered through a modern point of view. The end result is music that is quite mature and well-constructed.

Richard seems to have two sides to his musical personality; that could have something to do with the two tracks available on his Myspace player. He has indicated on his profile page that he removed "a load of good songs", so I take it on faith that he has a much more varied output than what is present.

The first track, "Today", is a tightly constructed synth pop tune that shows off his compositional flare. The song is well-written as well as being danceable and infectious. I can imagine that this would be great live. There's so much life to the music that it starts to grab hold of your limbs and move you while you're sitting in your seat.

His ear for the finer details of solid and inventive mainstream writing is highly in evidence. The arrangement is meticulous, as is the production. The boy has gone to school on that list of influences he has written down on his MySpace page, and in the process has found his style; his voice sounds fully formed to me.

For a song that is just under four minutes, a huge amount of musical activity takes place.
His ability to build drama as a setup for the climax is in evidence in the section just prior to the last chorus. All of the prior elements come together transformed into something huge, creating the peak of the whole form. The interplay of voices and instruments possesses a contrapuntal quality, almost fugal in it's construction, before bursting into the aforementioned last chorus.

The fact that the drums drop out for that whole section and only resume their relentless forward motion with the commencement of the last chorus increases the sense of satisfaction we feel upon arriving.

This is terriffic modern earcandy. It's the only way to describe it. It's definitely pop music in the strictest sense of the term, but it has an oldschool sense of craftsmanship. This isn't redundant, disposable proto-musak, but a perfect example of mainstream writing. It's completely accessible and thoroughly satisfying; if all mainstream music possessed this kind of vision and scope, I might listen to the radio more frequently.

The other song on the player, "A Way", represents a more introspective side of Richard's style. On the whole, I am not quite as satisfied by this offering as I am by the aforementioned song. Overall, it feels too short; the song ends just as it's about to develop. On top of that, the style he has chosen never interested me completely.

On the other hand, his ability to construct a singable melody is in evidence here, along with his sense of pacing and knowledge of songwriting in general. I just want a little more substance. In other words, this feels to me like a fragment full of possibility that needs to be realized.

So, for those of you out there who are looking for some high quality pop music, you should avail yourself of the opportunity to check out Richard Jay. Due to his age, one might conjugate their feelings for this young man's music using a future tense, but from what I can tell, he has already arrived.

Check him out at:

www.myspace.com/therichardjay

P.S.- I don't normally do this, but Richard asked me to include this link. It's for a musician named Calvin Harris. From what I could glean, he is popular in the UK, and he gives a shout out to Richard, who he says is his friend. So, if you're up for it, check out this link:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/8208310.stm

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