Mitchell Adam Johnson Half Moon Lane
2014
For the past 7 years, the only posts on this blog have been occasional spam messages in the comments. But I've chosen to come briefly out of retirement now in order to write about a record by a good friend of mine—the first official solo release by the singer-songwriter Mitchell Adam Johnson, his EP Half Moon Lane, which came out today on Bandcamp.
At first, I agreed to write about Mitchell's record as something of an in-joke—anyone who might happen upon this long-defunct blog (and isn't a spambot) is likely to be someone who knows both Mitchell and I, and who will realize right away that this review could hardly be seen as objective. But the moment I first heard the completed record, my desire to write about this work and to promote it, in whatever small way I could, became entirely sincere.
Still, I can't hope to write an objective review of Mitchell's music, so I'm not going to try. Mitchell and I have been writing songs together for ten years now, and what this record reminds me of more than anything is the music that we both devoured when we were just getting started out together. If Half Moon Lane had somehow dropped into our laps back then, it's a record we would have both listened two twice a day, memorized, and shamelessly stolen ideas from. It also reminds me of the songs that Mitchell was writing and recording by himself on his home computer back then, when his uncanny gifts for melody, structure, mood, harmony, and recording technique were just starting to find expression. But what has arrived here feels fully formed, effortless, clear-eyed, and—if such a term can be applied to a songwriter who is so good at capturing a teenage mindset—grown up. Which is to say, it has something of the feel of a dream realized. It's the record Mitchell and I had been fantasizing about making long before either of us knew how to make it a reality. Here, he's done it.
For those who are new to Mitchell's music, there is another Smith who will come to mind more readily than I will. While Elliott Smith's influence is everywhere apparent here, the EP never comes close to feeling like a rehash. More than anything, the two songwriters seem to share common influences: Cat Stevens, Big Star, Paul Simon. But just as Elliott Smith did, Mitchell stakes out his own territory. As firmly rooted in a certain tradition of wistful pop as these songs are, they have a unique and consistent sensibility that is entirely Mitchell's own. And the songs are good—remarkably so. Half Moon Lane is an exemplar of the EP format. In recent years, artists have increasingly used this shorter form as a way to toss together loose ends or try out a new sound, but Mitchell uses it instead to ensure a remarkable consistency of quality throughout.
Mitchell may be the only person I know who could tell you exactly what his favorite part of every one of his favorite songs is. And that attention to detail pays off. This is an EP with great "parts" all over it: the angular guitar riff that elevates the coda of "The Closing Door," the rich chorus of "oohs" that kicks in after the second verse of "Round & Around," pretty much every melodic and production detail of "Abbey Brown." And as with the EP as a whole, Mitchell knows how to keep his compositions tantalizingly short. Without exception, I find myself looking forward to every song on this record as soon as the one before it ends, and when I get to the end of the whole thing, I look forward to starting it all over again. It's very rare indeed that I make any use of the iTunes "Repeat All" option, but that has become standard practice for me when listening to this record. Round and around indeed.
You can listen to and purchase the EP here:
https://mitchelladamjohnson.bandcamp.com/releases
(Or, sign a pledge to go vegetarian for a week, and get it for free. Of course, Paul McCartney's influence was bound to show up here somewhere.)
