These Are the New Good Times

Recorded by and with a few tracks of playing from Alan Sparhawk of Low, Jon DeRosa gives us this album of sad acoustic coffee shop songs. With some touching songs here and there, the album falls into too many traps, especially throughout the middle of the album. Jon DeRosa’s voice takes the small part about Low that I don’t like and let’s it dominate. It’s that affected singer-songwriter voice that undesirably crescendos and decrescendos too often within a single syllable, made especially worse with pop melodies and cadences. Nevertheless, there are some nice, quaint, sad numbers that I do like and that others will definitely appreciate more. 1, 3, 4, 11.

1. sad acoustic and voice, with banjo and some harmonium.
2. steady acoustic. don’t like “i told jesus christ how much i lover her.”
3. arpeggiated acoustic with banjo. definite church music feel.
4. beautiful slow sad song with piano.
5. strummed acoustic with open strings. not great.
6. fast strumming with droning harmonium. not great.
7. sad pensive. The melody is too pop and affected for me.
8. country story telling feel. better.
9. sparse acoustic with pretty melody and violin and bells.
10. same as 9 with prominent harmonium and backing vocals.
11. slow country swing with brief 3/4 percussion section