Damien Jurado is on a roll at the moment with the recent release of his brilliant album Maraqopa, the follow-up to the equally impressive Saint Bartlett. This time around he has collaborated with Richard Swift, a great musician in his own right, and added some density and electricity to his beautifully weary songs. The duo released Other People’s Songs Volume One, an album of covers in 2010 which included songs by Bill Fay, Yes, John Denver and Kraftwerk and is well worth tracking down.
The opening track and one of the highlights of Maraqopa is this week’s Nothing Is the News, a tripped out excursion into loose limbed jazz drums and incredible bluesy psychedelic guitars that spiral, squeal and fight to be heard like a lost carnival theme tune played by Funkadelic. Jurado is the calm eye of the storm with his reverb-heavy voice drifting in and out of the mix between his main vocal lines. This is one of those songs that like one of those Doors jams that keeps delving deeper down the wormhole with mind expanding fluidity and verve.
All you had heard, the ghosts of the words in a song
Nothing new have when all that you want is gone
I will never know, I will never know
You can’t go back no the door has been closed
Standing outside just passing time will we die
There’s nowhere to live and all that’s been living is gone
I will never know, I will never know
I will never know
(That’s my song)
Turn around you found that they were all wrong
All you had heard were ghosts of the words in a song
Nothing you had and all that you want is gone
I will never know, I will never know
I will never know
Doubtful Sounds 