Jeremy Jay: A Place Where We Could Go

Californian Jeremy Jay is a man in love; in love with the romance and ritz of ‘50s Hollywood, in love with the music of Gene Vincent and Jonathan Richman, and most of all in love with the mood-lit ‘Heavenly Creatures’ that frequently appear in his swoonsome songs.

Leaving behind the electronic elements of his recent EP, Airwalker, Jay’s debut album proper sees the die-hard romantic deliver his scenarios with thrumming guitars, bursts of piano and fluttering basslines, accompanied by a sole companion, the spare drum clatter of Dub Narcotic Soundsystem’s Chris Sutton.

With production helmed by Calvin Johnson, it comes as no surprise that A Place Where We Could Go is delivered with the minimum of muss and maximum emphasis on the thumping heart beneath. Dripping with Parisian charm and delivered with a half-sung, half-spoken dulcet vocal, songs like ‘Til We Meet Again’ and the sultry ‘While The City Sleeps’ draw you into their rose-tinted vision of reality with an uncanny ease.

On the basis of this record, Jay may turn out to be as worthy an heir to the naïve-pop throne as Johnson was to Richman two decades ago.