The Hermit and the Hedonist is the second album from Jim Kroft and it contains some real high points and a number of very good pop songs. Unfortunately for the singer songwriter it also contains several tracks that don’t excite near so much.
Produced by Laura Marling’s drummer Matt Ingram and mixed at The Kinks’ famed Konk Studios by Richard Wilkinson (Adele/ Kaiser Chiefs), the album has a pleasant sixties pop feel. Kroft’s vocals are smooth and even and the instrumentation is varied and generally well orchestrated. At times the effect is a laid back air that is at odds with the sometimes tortured lyrics.
But then Kroft has his own way of doing things. The Dundonian ended up squatting in a Berlin community made up of struggling artists and musicians after leaving the UK. He made a little money playing music and his strange lifestyle gave him plenty of songwriting inspiration, which is where much of this album came from.
The album opens with the single Memoirs from the Afterlife. This is a big, sweeping track with lush harmonies that has a lovely feel of late era Beatles to it. The swirling organs and lavish vocal effects build to great effect here.
Modern Monk is next, a slower, acoustic guitar based song that definitely belongs to the Hermit part of the album title. A violin backs the impassioned vocals giving a wonderfully mournful air to much of the track.
A good start to the album, but for me the quality then falls off. The Jailor, If I’m Born Too Late and Waitin’ For A Healing are average pop songs at best and don’t stand out at all.
Ulysses, however, marks a return to the impassioned vocals and opulent instrumentation of the opening track. It has a symphonic quality as the music swells and the lyrics hint at feats of daring. Canary In The Coalmine follows with a very fast lyrical delivery that sounds great but makes it a little difficult to follow. I have a feeling that the lyrics are well worth studying though.
Bleeding Into Bohemia is another good track. Again it’s a big song that features an insistent guitar part and an anthemic chorus that sticks in your head. It’s only three minutes long, but somehow it feels like there is much more to it.
But again things tail away rather. Haiku has none of the subtlety or tightness that its name might suggest while Daylight is another basic pop song. The closing Morning Breaks is another sombre acoustic track and is pleasant enough but fails to give the album the big finish that it perhaps requires.
The Hermit and the Hedonist is an interesting album overall, and gives a good flavour of what Kroft is capable of and, even if it is rather uneven, the high points make it well worth a listen. His story is an interesting one and I’m sure there is a lot more to come from his pen.
