Kintsugi refers to the Japanese art of repairing pottery in a way that doesn’t try to disguise the damage. The flaws are part of the history of an object ; a process of embracing, rather than hiding,
”Life is filled of fractured pieces but is golden in the end” is the refrain inMr Kintsugi, the nearest thing to a title track on this album.
Small Town Jones is Devon singer-songwriter Jim Jones who collaborates with friend, drummer, multi-instrumentalist and producer Michael Reed.
The songs in this impressive collection don’t shy away from Jones’s own flaws and the connecting theme is his urgent desire to overcome distractions (as well as fighting the temptation to stay in bed all day!).
A link can be made to his day job as a carer for young people whose emotional scars are also in need of repair and restoration.
He sings of a constant striving for clarity and wanting to find reasons to be optimistic about the future.
The arrangements are slick and smoothly melodic, Alongside Jones and Reed is Dave Little (guitar), Nathan Layland (bass) , David Smale (double bass), Rebecca Balzani Barrow (violin) and Holly Carter (pedal steel).
Peter Bruntnell plays guitar on We Are All Each Other while Safe In Sound features vocals from Abbe Martin & Hannah Wood of the UK folk duo Sound of the Sirens.
In 3:33 Jones sings “I’m staring at the dark, it’s staring back at me, and all I want is to see.”
A glimmer of hope may be drawn from the significance of numbers on the clock; 333 is an angel number that indicates a positive energy towards a quest.
Other songs express a dream of Better Days up ahead and of seeking the path between The Mist And The Light..
We Alive addresses the recognition that time is too precious to waste and the Go Easy On Yourself is self-explanatory.
Overall, the joined up fragments of the eleven introspective songs on this album are skilfully pieced together
