ALBUM REVIEW: Destination Unknown – Laurence Jones
LAURENCE JONES, after a six-year wait, is now set to put out his sixth studio album Destination Unknown. This record also marks a milestone, it’s his first effort for Marshall Records, who signed with earlier this year. Now an almost honourable member of the UK blues scene, LAURENCE JONES started out his career strong by winning the Young Artist Of The Year award, courtesy of the British Blues Awards, for three years between 2014-2016.
Eight years on since that first win, how has Jones worked on his craft and what wisdom does he have to impart on us? Well, an album purely about romance, relationships, and all things in between. Opening track Anywhere With Me is a strong start with enjoyable bluesy guitars and vocals. It’s the type of track that would be perfect for the soundtrack of a coming-of-age film, specifically the opening scene where we meet our protagonist getting ready for the day. Can’t Keep From Loving You continues that trend as an upbeat track that will have your head automatically bopping along, even if you’ve never heard the song before.
As mentioned, this album focuses a lot on romance and not much else, which can have both its standout moments and its downfall. On the one hand we can view the album as a story of a relationship facing its highlights and breaking points. We have positive lyrics and happiness in the two already mentioned tracks that make you smile and feel hopeful, we have Give Me That Feeling which is the rather more, ahem, risqué (so to say) track that is actually rather sexy as opposed to a song where you want to shrivel up and die from too much information. Even the more negative sides we see in the relationship are intriguing to listen to.
However, there are points where you can feel yourself zone out, partly from things becoming repetitive and from wanting to tell Jones to just shut up already, we get it! Tonight is an example of this; it starts out interesting with a gentle intro that then builds up as Jones recounts a time of hardship and refusing to give up on love. But as a six-minute-long track it begins to drag on to the point where you zone out and don’t realise that the next song has started.
Luckily, after going through that, I Won’t Lie Again, and Holding Back, we are rescued by In Too Deep which grabs your attention and almost says sorry for what you had to go through for the past 14 minutes. We say almost sorry as things go back to the dull and repetitive during Said And Done. The true apology comes with title track, Destination Unknown – a powerful sounding track that, yes it’s about romance, but more from the point of view of questioning life and knowing nothing stays the same, yet you’re willing to fight for it. A strong track to end on.
Destination Unknown is an overall lovely album to listen to, even if it’s not something you’d deliberately seek out it’s something you can play at a party or as you’re going about your day. It’s just good vibes. Even if it is repetitive at points, the songs about love, issues and promises for the future are enough to make you smile.
Rating: 7/10
Destination Unknown is set for release on September 9th via Marshall Records.
Like LAURENCE JONES on Facebook.