Advance Review - Justin Peter Kinkel-Shuster - Take Heart Take Care - (August 30, 2019)
This is the second album from Arkansas based Justin Peter Kinkel-Shuster formerly of the Water Liars. The folk singer-songwriter has managed to create a record that seems to ooze a gentle contentment. I can imagine listening to it on one of those swinging couches on a veranda on a hazy summer evening.
The overall feeling is very positive and uplifting, there is certainly a country element to JPKS’s voice and some of his guitar work, but he never falls in to that depressing country archetype.
He is able to switch smoothly from a rockier guitar sound on some of the tracks to much more delicate guitar picking on others and even throws out a few complete curveballs, like starting Educated Guesses with; “Have you seen your mother baby, standing in the shadow?” and then taking a completely different direction onward from that line than we’ve all been used to since 1966.
Everything here seems unhurried. With the exception of the keyboards, JPKS created every sound on this album himself and you sense that he probably allowed himself time to experiment with the tracks before finalising them. That said, he’s created a very balanced, coherent whole that leaves the listener with a feeling of hope, something the world needs more of right now.
It’s an album to listen to if you’re feeling a bit delicate, like a sonic hug from someone who’s been around the block a few times, but can still see all the good in the world.
Pick of the bunch: Flies on Shit, Cut Your Teeth, and Name What You Are
Rated: 3/5