Thomas Truax - Monthly Journal

by Andy Cassidy

published: 27 / 2 / 2012

Label: Psychoteddy Records
Format: CD

Hugely affecting sixth album from eccentric American musician Thomas Truax, for which he committed to write, record and produce a song for each month of last year in what was a turbulent twelve months

Review

It took me a whole two minutes to get hooked on Thomas Truax. I first saw him when he was touring to promote his fourth album, 'Songs from the Films of David Lynch', and I was struck by his prodigious talent, his charm, his creativity and his, well, weirdness. Truax’s background as an animator and a former illusionist come very much to the fore in his music, and is especially evident in his live shows. Accompanying himself on guitar and a variety of home-made instruments, Truax’s ability to hold a crowd is breath-taking. 'Monthly Journal' is Truax’s sixth album, and is possibly his most mainstream to date. That is not to say, however, that he has in any way compromised his act – this album is every bit as kooky and quirky as its predecessors. Perhaps the key to the album’s accessibility is the subject matter. Whereas previous albums have included such bizarre classics as 'The Cannibals Have Captured Our Nicole Kidman' and 'The Butterfly and the Entymologist', 'Monthly Journal' deals with more prosaic matters, albeit in Truax’s inimitable style. When Truax started the project in January 2011, he committed to write, record and produce a song for each month of the year. Thus, the album is made up of twelve songs, each representing a month, and forms a sort of monthly travelogue. As it turned out, the year was a turbulent one for Truax: his father passed away in March (the gorgeous 'March Winds'), a five-year love affair broke down in June ('Lost in the Moon in June'), and he was forced to leave the UK due to tightening US/UK Visa restrictions ('November in Berlin'). Added to these personal factors, 2011 had the royal wedding and the Fukushima reactor meltdown ('April Showers') and, of course, the UK riots ('Midnight in August'). As a personal document to Truax’s life, and a social commentary of a particularly eventful year, the album is hugely affecting. The opening track, 'January Egg Race Dream', is familiar Truax territory: strange dreams, some wonderfully descriptive verse (“piles of discarded Christmas trees line the block like casualties of some sort of genocide, they’re still hung with random bits of tinsel but stripped of all their most precious jewels”) and a suitably eerie backing track. February's 'What Ya Doin’ To Me' is a lively rockabilly number, while the elegiac 'March Winds' is a beautifully wistful tribute to his late father. Indeed, of all the tracks on the album, 'March Winds' is the least Truax-like, but, in spite of this, it is, for me the highlight of the album. It is a slow-paced ballad, and Truax’s delivery is tremendous. Truax’s percussionist “Sister Spinster” (a home-made drum machine constructed with bicycle wheels) makes a welcome appearance on 'Midnight in August', but the instrumentation on the remainder of the album is more conventional. That is not to say that it is any less effective than any of Truax’s previous work. It’s simply different, and works well. Thomas Truax’s 'Monthly Journal' is a fabulous album, and a great place to start if you’re keen to discover this maverick mad sonic inventor. Truax is so incredibly creative, and, like all of his previous albums, there is layer upon layer of weirdness and surreal enchantment to be discovered with each new listen. This is a worthy addition to the already formidable Truax canon. It is difficult to maintain one’s standards when one’s general standard is excellence, but with 'Monthly Journal', Thomas Truax has maintained, and possibly eclipsed, his previous benchmarks.

Track Listing:-

1 January Egg Race Dream
2 February What Ya Doin To Me
3 March Winds
4 April Showers
5 Free As Fireflies In May
6 Lost On The Moon In June
7 A Gold Star For Miss July
8 Midnight In August
9 Grandmother's Advice
10 Everything's Gone Halloween
11 November In Berlin
12 Family & Friends