The Jayhawks: Paging Mr Proust

Loose but tight, quiet but loud.

The Jayhawks Paging Mr Proust album cover

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Considering The Jayhawks have been around for more than 30 years, and it’s a long time since their pivotal Hollywood Town Hall album of 1992, the band’s music remains effervescent and fresh.

Co-produced by R.E.M guitarist Peter Buck, Paging Mr Proust resonates with the kind of analog shimmer that will race the pulses of audiophiles – the sound of Gary Louris’s lead guitar is particularly magnetic.

In a sense, it’s as old-fashioned as a Sony Walkman. But perhaps ‘timeless’ is a better word. Songs such as the rolling The Devil Is In Her Eyes and the carefully layered Isabel’s Daughter are the work of a group who have absorbed much of what’s great about rock’n’roll and turned it loose in the present.

Ian Winwood
Freelance Writer

Barnsley-born author and writer Ian Winwood contributes to The Telegraph, The Times, Alternative Press and Times Radio, and has written for Kerrang!, NME, Mojo, Q and Revolver, among others. His favourite albums are Elvis Costello's King Of America and Motorhead's No Sleep 'Til Hammersmith. His favourite books are Thomas Pynchon's Vineland and Paul Auster's Mr Vertigo. His own latest book, Bodies: Life and Death in Music, is out now on Faber & Faber and is described as "genuinely eye-popping" by The Guardian, "electrifying" by Kerrang! and "an essential read" by Classic Rock. He lives in Camden Town.

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