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Thomas
Denver Jonsson & The September Sunrise “First in Line” (Kite 2004)
Available:
Now. Review by Jeremy Searle 
 Warm and thoughtful lo-fi
country from Sweden’s best export. Thomas Denver Jonsson’s latest offering is a five track
EP, featuring two tracks from his highly acclaimed debut “Hope to Her”, two
new songs and a live cut. Kicking things off is “First in Line”,
probably the standout from the aforementioned album, which, as I’ve noted
elsewhere, is a gorgeous slice of country pop, but still with enough edge
to contain lines like “You held me down on the dirty backseat/pressure of
the hand and the fingers/and the pleasure won”. Next up is a live version
of the same track, with Rosie Thomas on vocals and piano and Damien Jurado
on harmonica. This stripped down version is as good as, if not better
than, the studio version, taking on a tremulous and shivering sense of
loss. Of the two new songs, “The city and the outside world” has his
signature effortless melody with some nice steel counterpoint to Thomas’s
delicately soaring voice. “Stranger at ease” is more stately, with vocals
akin to Freedy Johnston, and contains the wonderful closing couplet “how
can you say we got so much in common/when you love every part of me I
hate”. Finally there’s “24 seven”, a lo-fi delight that again belies the
loss in the lyrics. Thematically the songs subject matter are perhaps a
little over-similar, but that’s a small quibble with what is an excellent
EP, and a good introduction to Thomas Denver Jonsson’s work, and even if
you have “First in Line” already it’s worth getting for the live cut
alone. Excellent. www.thomasdenver.com
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