Ayron Jones – Audio Paint Job
Review by Lou Flesh
“The day my junkie mom abandoned me was the day I learned to lie.”
Scorched-blues rock singer/songwriter, Ayron Jones sings these lyrics in his opening cage-rager “Take Me Away,” ripping down any walls of pretense between his heart and his fans. The opening track is the most moving album out of Seattle in years. Audio Paint Job unravels a musical journey that is dark, wet, and gritty as any back alley in his hometown.
Jones confesses his temptations and frustrations throughout Audio Paint Job. This emotionally transitional work culminates with a huge spiritual impact. Smoking weed and drinking with friends on “Emily” doesn’t offer relief for a relationship testing his love. However, the pop and punch of the power chords, brings the chorus in under the chant of “Girl you got the best of me / why can’t I let you be?” Bass player Bob Lovelace and drummer Ehssan Karimi complete the engine behind this badass big beat. The anxiety-driven need to chill is extrapolated beautifully on “West Coast Feelin,” which drives like a sweet ride in a tricked-out whip. It also adds some light vinyl scratches and female backing vocals into the mix. It sounds as fun to listen to as it must have been to record.
This is a hood-rat rockers’ delight, entwined in the geographic history of producing legend Barrett Martin and mixing deity Jack Endino. It shows just how easily Jones has fit in with his new brothers of rock. He’s had great records out before, but none as completely summer-boss as this full-length album. It showcases all his six-string, psyche-out skills, urban groove with a little country trilling (“Take Your Time”).
Ayron Jones and The Way may just be “Boys From Puget Sound,” but they sure do musically capture the beautiful land from rainy days, warm summer winds, majestic mountains, and the valleys filling it up. That track itself shows the band going all-out scatter-shot, grinding down on Jones’s connection to both a lover and the universe.
This is the ultimate break up album to re-start your life to–it’s filled with the joys of a gin and juice buzz. Meanwhile, it has the piss and vinegar of living in the city, which ignores the fact there is a new king of rock! Get on this before you get left behind.
