Sometimes as soon as you read about a record label and the acts associated with it, you're going to get a clue regarding what to expect from any and all output said label will release in the future. Label Fantastic! is the perfect example of such a phenomenon; staffed by Mathias Kom (a.k.a. The mastermind behind The Burning Hell), Chris Adeney (better known as Wax Mannequin), Gillian Manford (Miss Quite Contrary) and Jenny Mitchell (Jenny Omnichord), LF! is an artist-operated indie label and listeners familiar with the prior output attached to those names have already begun to develop a profile of what they're going to get.
In the case of Jenny Omnichord's first album through the imprint, those expectations aren't only met, they're exceeded.
Sounding like a more instrumentally competent Kimya Dawson, Mitchell turns the ordinary into something extraordinary on All Our Little Bones. From the moment “Bad Luck” open the record (choice lyrics: “Your window breaks so it won't roll down at the toll booth where you have to pay/and the power goes out on th stage at the bar just before you're supposed to play”) the magic spills out of Jenny Mitchell with all the ease of a simply played piano and little else – but it will have listeners clamoring to pick up every last precious piece because it's disarming in its simplicity and everyone listening knows that such things don't come along every day.
The simplicity continues to spin gold as “Blankets And Bones” enjoys nature from the windows of a perpetually-broken tour van, Omnichord's keyboard's take over for “Thinking Of You” in order to convert the song from a romantic ballad to an off-kilter and romantically absurd one before the singer tells her own exciting tale of tracking down Randy Bachman on some networking site like Facebook (in “Randy B Found Me”). Both in print and on the surface as the record plays all of this sounds incredibly simple and poppy but, as the record progresses, listeners get the impression that the songs aren't as simple as they appear; there are solid and scintillating structures to be found in the spare presentation of these twelve songs and listeners will find themselves unable to turn away from them until they're able to figure out how they work so well. That search continues to hold in listeners even as the gang chorus in “Skeletal Polyamory” causes hearts to swell and “Theoretical Love Song” sings a child to sleep in addition to bidding listeners farewell and good night. It's a very unusual and abstract emotional arc that Jenny Mitchell has presented here, but certainly an engaging one too because, at each turn, listeners remain right in-step with the singer's fantastic musings, cheering her on. Here's hoping that Jenny Omnichord releases another record soon; those listeners that find All Our Little Bones will be eagerly awaiting it.
Artist:
www.labelfantastic.com/jennyomnichord
www.myspace.com/jennyomnichord
Album:
All Our Little Bones comes out on May 10, 2010. Pre-order it here on Zunior .
