By Toby Furlong
Label: Nettwerk
If ever there were a way to make an artistic opening statement, Olive Jones opts for the grandest in a beautiful melding of soul, blues and pop appreciation.
The result is a bold and outstanding debut that tackles mental health, the complexities of love, increasingly fractious politics, and the need for compassion, over a musical bed that blends the fine work of Ella Fitzgerald with the more contemporary school of R&B with influences, such as Corrine Bailey Rae. There is also a healthy amount of classic blues and soul for good measure.
Waltzing into proceedings, the project begins with the title track ‘Mary‘, radiating the confidence and the musicianship of an artist who you’d suspect had been touring the R&B circuit for decades. Jones‘s vocal control is phenomenal, as she tells with honesty, her longing to protect a loved one from mental health struggles.
Jones is able to weave a narrative of many central characters all sharing one struggle. Speaking of the track, she said: ““A lot of people close to me were affected, and I also grew up in an era where it wasn’t really spoken about,” she says. “I think it’s changed a lot since, but the song felt to me like an opportunity to explore that feeling of wanting to be there for someone, and the helplessness of perhaps realising that you can’t.”
Continuing onwards, ‘A Woman’s Heart‘ excels in all the right ways, a downtempo shifting ballad that would be rated highly even it was just an instrumental track, it’s an added luxury to have the ever present vocals of Jones swooning over the track.
Jones sought out the help of virtuoso producer James Wyatt, who himself is earning a fine reputation through work with George Ezra and Ellie Goulding. One of the album’s brightest moments comes in the form of the first song they created together, ‘All In My Head‘. The track has the hazy feeling of a dimly lit bar lounge filled with cigarette smoke and a sense of longing, “Thought I gave it all/ Knew the score/ What’s it for/ When love can be so cruel?” She contemplates over a muted drum beat.
The songwriter is also more than capable of suddenly switching a mood, offering a different outlet. ‘Kingdom’ is a guitar driven track, with a real sense of urgency, which is reflected heavily in its focus, that being the outcome of the 2016 EU referendum, offering her thoughts on the track, Jones added: “the lyrics just came out of me – I think I was trying to capture the frustration of it all, our arrogance, how Brexit felt like shooting ourselves in the foot.”
Like a painter standing before an easel, Jones performs as if she is brushing fine strokes of colour, ‘Summer Rain‘ is reflective of works by folk artists such as Vashti Bunyan and Haley Heynderickx.
Saving perhaps its most tender, gripping moment until the absolute last, ‘Blossom Tides‘ is quite an unbelievable track from an artist delivering an opening statement, pure career and dream work. Totally mesmerising and the sort of track that requires a pair of quality headphones, a dimly lit room and your total submission to the picture it is painting in your mind.
You would never suspect this is only the beginning for Olive Jones, arriving fully formed, and ‘For Mary‘ is primed to capture hearts and minds as the year unfolds.
Listen to ‘For Mary‘ here: