What Else But Love?
Following on from his debut album ‘May Be Some Time Later’, Jon Redfern looks into some very emotion and personal stories for inspiration to his new album ‘What Else But Love’.
The material written by this very talented, and barely undiscovered singer songwriter is something of a private nature that he has decided to share with the world through his lyrical ability. His songs are written from the heart, completely open and honest about his early life, which was spent as a teen surviving and travelling alone to escape an unhappy home life.
With this record Redfern tries to be nothing more than he is. There are no attempts at trying something that has been repeated in more ways than one a million times over by most musicians in the industry; no attempts at more conventional indie, rock or even pop components. The music produced by Redfern is subtle and delicately fashioned with each of the nine tracks delivered on this release offering something new in regards to its surrounding numbers. There are no repeats of the same acoustic guitar, string segments or piano rhythms. While a piano base leads some songs, others include more of an underpinning drum beat or an acoustic guitar riff, then others are so pure that the minimalist of sounds creates as much of an atmosphere as a large orchestra.
A couple of elements stand out on this release. ‘Future Lies’ for its harmonica flash and piano segment, which are of a more sharp nature while imbedded into something rather placid. The recent single ‘Play Of Fear’ is probably the albums less original, yet more memorable tune for the feature of a lively base, while ‘Troubadour’ has a string arrangement that nudges at the ear. The vocals that Redfern holds are like nothing around at the minute. They embrace a lot of emotion and though tempo changes and exploratory meanings a listener begins to grasp the world surrounding this musician. So, when this precious technique is combine with the vocals of Becky Unthank from Rachel Unthank and The Winterset on the albums concluding track ‘Don’t Worry’, the duet makes the perfect ending to an album that makes its mark on the industry and a listener.