John Paul Davis
My name is John Paul Davis. I write poetry, build things on the web with code, make music and visual art. I love making things. This website is mostly about the things I make and do.
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Days Before the Green -
The band switch instruments & avoid writing in their comfort zone, resulting in an album that sounds like nothing they'd done to that point, while still sounding like only R.E.M. could.
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Long-Term Strategies -
"Repair is the dream of the broken thing," David Berman plaintively sings, a summary of not just this gorgeous album of outsider folk-rock but also of the band's rickety aesthetic.
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Everything Means More Than One Thing -
Colin Meloy's imaginative, evocative songwriting is matched in scope & execution by the band's tight, fierce & masterful playing in this collection of tales of love & war.
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Trees Wear Less When It's Cold Out -
Smith dives for musical transcendence & surfaces with a set of rousing rockers as she examines the ambiguities & demands of relationships - with other people & with music itself.
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Self-Explanatory -
The band step outside their sonic comfort zone with dynamics, melody & gorgeous layers whose daring match the lyrics' fearless exploration of addiction & recovery.
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Everything You Can See Is In Motion -
The icon pushes her sound in a bold new direction with texture, atmosphere & unconventional song structures supporting the album's themes of romantic & sexual actualization & exploration
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Both Worlds Are Real -
Backed by his touring band, Lovett captures his genre-defying swinging, smiling, sassy & sublime live sound in these stories of sin, survival, & salvation.
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Bad Hair Day -
The singer-songwriter experiments with new colors in her musical palette & soulful singing while staying groove-oriented, exploring themes of love, loss, & life transition.
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Birthplace of Fire -
Continuing to explore themes of indigenous rights, environmentalism & spirituality, the band pushes their sound in a lush, layered, driving, melodic direction.
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Be Kind Be Well Be Safe Be Love -
The pianist & guitarist deliver a diverse set that showcases their melodic & rhythmic sensitivities as well as their intuitive improvisations that's both reflective & poignant
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History is Flat -
Diving into adventurous sampling & inventive sequencing, Liars explore the sonic possibilities of beauty, space & dynamics while continuing their iconoclastic lyrical explorations of contradiction.
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The Singer -
The band explore doubt, loneliness & frustration with Beatlesesque harmonies, bluesy, soulful, gritty singing over chunky riffs, angular, bottom-heavy bass & groovy drumming.
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Stories Told In Texture
