Scissors and Paper

Ears

     

Jonathan Segel's second album under his own name (and first in over a decade) marked a period of greatness and rebirth all across the Camper Van Beethoven family of artists (in roughly the same time around 2000, CVB reemerged with an album of rarities and new material called Camper Van Beethoven Is Dead..., Victor Krummenacher released the brilliant Bittersweet and Greg Lisher made his own solo debut, while Cracker continued to work on new music and created the Travelling Apothecary Show and Revue, incorporating members of CVB into a hectic live tour.) So, yes. But what about this album itself? Here, Segel brings some of his very best solo work which moves away from the more directly poppy Jack and Jill material, and doesn't venture so far into the classic rock strangeness of his work with Hieronymus Firebrain.
The opening track here, Roiling Clouds, is a majestically beautiful lyric-free track that will certainly please fans of Segel's violin playing. Other highlights here include Little Blue Fish, Perfect Ears, One Here and One Gone and perhaps the best of all, the beautiful People Will Stop At Nothing with its soaring guitar melodies and enchanting vocals from Jane Thompson.
The sound here is well more developed, full and confident than what some CVB fans may recall on Jonathan's Storytelling album (not a knock at that record, sprawling though it might be, it is full of brilliant moments as well). This is a fine album and the start of a string of excellent albums for JES in the 2000s through to the poppier Edgy Not Antsy and the recent rock album Honey.