Lunch of Champions

Mason Jennings’ Boneclouds - The Best Album of 2006

Boneclouds is the best album of 2006. Hands down.

It will be released to the general public tomorrow, and I recommend getting yourself a copy.
I have listened to this record 8 times so far, and it just keeps getting better. Mason Jennings is, quite simply, the best songwriter in America. This new album is giving me goosebumps.

Mason Jennings - Be Here Now

Boneclouds is Jenning’s sixth full-length album and his first recording under the umbrella of record-label goliath, Epic Records. To Epic’s credit, the label has been successful recently in procuring some solid albums (see Matisyahu, Fiona Apple, Modest Mouse, Ben Folds). By signing Jennings, Epic further entrenches itself as the big-label leader in producing original music.

This, Jenning’s sixth full-length album, is simply a much more mature version of his previous work. I don’t think that Mason is pushing any boundaries or even doing anything out of the ordinary. He is simply doing what he does best - recording and writing songs about life. Jennings provides a breath of fresh air, a respite from all the “Bob and Tom”-friendly crap we are bombarded with on a daily basis. His narratives share tales of his intellectual curiosity with religion, love, and hobo wanderings that touch the heart and mind in places that Bob Dylan could only dream of.

(above: Jennings sings the National Anthem at a Minnesota Vikings game)

After spending five months recording 30 songs (by all accounts) for Boneclouds, Jennings winnowed it down to the ten best that are used on this album. According to Mason’s recent interviews, the money that Epic advanced him was used to book an inordinate amount of studio time and buy him patience and peace of mind so that he could record the album he wanted. I’d say that Epic got their money’s worth. …I wish I could say the same for Shakira, another Epic artist, who produced an album called, Oral Fixation, which is pretty nasty coming from a skanky girl like that.

(above: Shakira’s skanky album cover for her skanky album, Oral Fixation)

I just puked.

Anyway, every song on Mason Jennings’ Boneclouds is blessed with it’s own unique sound that, when juxtoposed with those songs around it, plays a special role in crafting an amazing album.

The album begins with the first single, “Be Here Now”, a song about hoping for love. From there, the album steadily grows bigger and bigger, as if a dragon is awakening after a hundred years of napping in a cave. Moving powerfully through “Gentlest Hammer”, the album smoothly transitions into the most moving song, “If You Ain’t Got Love”. On it, Jennings bellows:

In a little wooden cabin up in northern Minnesota,
we ran together down to the dock, and you jumped right off it.
And from out in the water you called me to join you.
And I said, “Baby I cannot swim. If I jump, I’d surely drown you.”
You said, “Life has no limit if you’re not afraid to get in it.”
Oh baby I jumped to you. Since then there’s nothing I can’t do.
I’m never gonna give you up.
What do you got if you ain’t got love?

On the album’s sixth track, Jennings sings a song about Jackson Square in New Orleans that was written long before Hurricane Katrina hit the coast. The song takes on a disturbingly erie quality when juxtaposed with the events surrounding that Hurricane. Jennings sings:

(above: Jackson Square prior to Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans post-Katrina)

Rarely has a songwriter been able to capture the raw emotions on cd the way Jennings has on Boneclouds.

Summary: This is one of the best albums you’ll hear from one of America’s top songwriters.