Music Review: SJD, St John Divine (+video)

Sean James Donnelly aka SJD

Sean James Donnelly (SJD) lets space invade his seventh album, and the effect is very pleasant indeed. There are parallels with Beck's 2014 Morning Phase. Both artists inhabit a similar vocal space and have a pastoral warmth to their work.

But SJD paints from a slightly more eclectic palette. Album closer Was I Always Here is a gorgeous wedding song spiked with a fuzzed-up guitar solo, and the single, I Wanna Be Foolish borrows the riff from Pavement's Summer Babe (via the Fall) for a stroll down to the tavern in SJD's dressing gown. On Change The Channel SJD channels Martin Phillips, and the falsetto on Unplugged leaves everyone happy. This is quality stuff from one of our country's most consistent songwriters.

Listen to Was I Always Here below.