Kelly Kirwan
After listening to Jons' previous album, Serfs of Today, back in May, I noted that their sound was awash in psych-revival haze, a “shoulder-shrug” rock that drifted along with loose limbs and an easy grin. This was a band that preferred their shimmering guitars front and center, as echoing, lazy vocals acted as a current to guide the melody. It was clear that Jons was a band that enjoyed on-the-brink fuzz, like an electrical wire humming with wasp-nest apprehension.
The band’s follow-up album, At Work On Several Things, is a 13-track opus that blends psychedelia with brassy jazz influences. These boys from British Columbia have never been afraid to revel in instrumentals, and this style is especially poignant when a lingering saxophone drapes a slinky mood over their melodies. Where Serfs of Today had song titles rife with grand, religious references, At Work On Several Things sports names that elevate the everyday—"In the Yard," "Gutter Master," "Hotel," and "Retirement." They evoke images of mundane yardwork and banal weekend getaways, but imbue them with the grandeur of psychedelia.
"Retirement" is an inconspicuous stream of consciousness laid across a leisurely, twangy beat. The guitars meander beside occasional dots of wobbly, spacey synths as humdrum thoughts drift in and out, like twirling wisps of smoke from an extinguished candle. “What would you give to feel young again? / What percentage is your favorite drink … What’s the age when life begins? / What’s the worst job you’ve had?” It’s a slew of questions that have no urgency, some fleeting curiosity to fill a quiet moment—but there’s something achingly sad buried beneath the sunny atmosphere.
"Everything Happens to You" is their longest track by a landslide, clocking in at just over nine minutes. It’s a repetitive, undulating sort of riff that feels evocative of a clocktower’s chimes, building tension towards some abstract breaking point. The saxophone slinks it’s way into the fold, adding a few fluttering notes and a sultry offset to the underlying sense of urgency. In fact, this dynamic seems subtly sprinkled throughout the album in it's entirety.
On At Work On Several Things, Jons manage to combine a love of psych’s languid, distorted air with an exploration of the pressures of day-to-day life. But the album transforms these heavy realities into drifting beats so effortlessly that it's easy to keep floating forward, suspended in a sea of psychedelic haze, and realize that maybe those pressures aren't as bad as you thought.