However, I've struggled with a lot of his solo albums - I eagerly bought copies of And, The Three Sketchys (1999-2005), a live album and the There's a Lot in Here cd/dvd from his online shop when I discovered it. The live songs are always incredible (the live album is from July 15th 2009 and I fully recommend checking it out if you can) and And has some good songs (Not About a Girl or a Place is a favourite) but I struggled with The Three Sketchys, which really slowed down my desire to dig out all of the solo/Onelinedrawing releases. I listened to the songs from The Volunteer on the dvd but few really made an impression (dvds perhaps aren't the best way to consume music - I can't have listened to those songs more than twice).
This album is then a bit of a strange one - here we have the album Visitor, originally released on Jade Tree in 2002 but rerecorded in 2012. I've not heard the original version of Visitor and I feel I really should at some point. Whilst I can't say much about how these songs compare to the originals, I can say that reVisitor is a pretty nice album. In an age where I don't get along too well with Jonah's recent outputs it's nice to hear some great songs played well. I knew a lot of these from concerts and live recordings - Bitte Ein Kuss, Smile, Yr Letter and Softbelly are all fan-favourites and ones I really look forward to hearing. These versions are very nice - simple and stripped back but very true to the Jonah I'm used to seeing. Yr Letter is particularly great and Softbelly is so reminiscent of the darker Far songs I love so much. There are also songs that I've never really heard but enjoyed here - Candle Song and Sixes. Perfect Pair and Why Are We Fighting have always landed on the pile of Jonah songs I don't care for much and that doesn't change here.
I picked up this picture disc one of the most recent times I saw Jonah, in the Windmill in Brixton for £7.50 (as well as his latest album, You and Me Are Two). I was excited to hear both, but knew I'd get more out of this one. It ticks a lot of my boxes for what I want from a Jonah album, so it's a winner in that respect.
Format: 12" picture disc
Tracks: 11
Cost: £7.50 new
Bought: gig
When: 23/07/14
Colour: Picture disc
Etching: none
mp3s: no
