With the quaint sound of finger picking acoustics making a stamp on today’s tainted charts, PJ BOND joins the underground fanatics of Frank Turner, Joshua Radin and City & Colour by staying true to the raw sound of a six-string and good voice.
‘22, April: Vienna, Austria’ portrays a stockpile of honest and captivating stories making for a very personal EP. Although some of the songs roll into one another with some difficulty to tell each apart, there are some definite highlights, with love-infested ‘Hometown Hero’ and The Gaslight Anthem-inspired ‘Stop Being Bad’ fighting for the EP’s top spot.
Bond’s EP provides a fantastic soundtrack for a winter night in front of the fire, with some interesting top-line melodies to sooth you into a deep sleep. At times however, it’s difficult to see how the New Jersey-based songwriter can progress with just his guitar; the lack of layers really shows in this simplistic effort – the slight addition of a piano and some light percussion could evolve Bond’s collection into a must-have set of songs.
Ultimately, Bond’s own lyrics describe the sound of ‘22, April: Vienna, Austia’ perfectly:
“Sing a lullaby to make you fall asleep, into a trance I’ll get stuck in your head…”
NICK COREN