MTS 2024
Staying within his outer limits, British master of pop tune reaches for sentimental core of his listener’s psyche.
Here & Now
It may seem unfair to let Jeff Christie be defined by “Yellow River” – his band CHRISTIE’s hit that, over the decades, got covered by dozens of artists, including Elton John, Joe Dassin and R.E.M. – and still, it would be right to do so, because this Yorkshire musician is one of those rare writers who have never allowed the quality of their output diminish in any way. And here’s the proof: the veteran’s long-overdue solo album in which songs concocted during the last four years – devised after a new take on "For All Mankind" saw the light of day – rub shoulders, in a dominating ratio, with recently recorded variants of his time-tested numbers such as “Fool’s Gold” and the aforementioned evergreen, the “Here & Now” finale, without showing any stylistic stitches and sounding as if they were composed yesterday. Only there’s more than robust consistency at play; there are ever-relevant themes running through JC’s first non-archival full-length offering under his own name.
Jeff’s melodic epistles always took his listener across the globe or inside a human soul – see, for instance “San Bernadino” that is not here or “Man Of Many Faces” that is part of this record – which is why the effervescent, riff-propelled and organ-bolstered “Driving Down To Memphis” and the shimmering, acoustically tinged and piano-rippled “One In A Million” feel so conceptually familiar and fresh at the same time. And though the twangy “Ordinary People” comes across as too philosophically pensive for its Americana vibe, it can’t fail to resonate with Christie’s audience, despite a few violin passages threatening to break the piece’s mood, whereas the solemn “Building Bridges” unfolds a sublime chorus before one’s mind’s eye and folds one’s very essence in a warm embrace. But while “Crash And Burn” rock ‘n’ rolls down the line with enviable energy and elegance, “Heaven” – a demo from the ’90s fleshed out for the “Here & Now” context and placed among the singer’s classics – fathoms eternity via gorgeous balladry.
Reclaiming and extending his legacy, Jeff Christie owns our here and now as he did there and then.
****2/3
