DEDICATESSEN Vol. 3

Limited Edition 500 copies in light green colour vinyl, including a download coupon of this album in digital format (MP3 - 320 kbos).

J’aime, the solo project of Jaime Cristóbal from Souvenir, follows up his debut single on our Jabalina Love Songs collection last year with this new 7” single (in light green vinyl) for DEDICATESSEN, Jabalina’s brand new singles collection. In this third volume of our DEDICATESSEN collec…

DEDICATESSEN Vol. 3

Limited Edition 500 copies in light green colour vinyl, including a download coupon of this album in digital format (MP3 - 320 kbos).

J’aime, the solo project of Jaime Cristóbal from Souvenir, follows up his debut single on our Jabalina Love Songs collection last year with this new 7” single (in light green vinyl) for DEDICATESSEN, Jabalina’s brand new singles collection. In this third volume of our DEDICATESSEN collection, J’aime treats us with four new songs in the twangy vibrato guitar mood that he already explored in his first single. It is indeed pop with an Americana shade, but it also shows fresh twists towards new, darker sounds -as heard in his latests concerts with his band- which fit the nighttime theme like a glove. Maybe that is why the muses have been especially generous this time, to the point of giving us what in fact is a single with two A sides: the dark, crawling and seductive “Midnight Shift” and that irresistible pop nugget, bright as the first lights of dawn, titled “This Time (Black Time)”. “J’aime en la noche eterna” has room for all the shades of black that occur in the long and unpredictable hours of nighttime. “Midnight Shift” starts the record with a stomping beat and a twangy riff which accompany J’aime’s voice set to crooner mode (a style he describes as “Crooner Swamp Soul”). An appropriately relentless tune for such mysterious lyrics, which evoke the search of a woman working the midnight shift. There are echoes of Jody Reynolds, Richard Hawley or Tav Falco in a song sprinkled with fuzz, echo chambers and Wurlitzer piano. “Garden of Shades” follows, an acoustic musing halfway between folk and country, a bit like a lost song from the Laurel Canyon scene circa 1972. Pedal steel caresses abound (a 1950s Multi-Kord), backed by a dry-sounding drum à la 1970s. Three verses describe that dark place which we all visit to forget things -or maybe to hide them. It is a garden of shades where the spirits of Neil Young and F.J. McMahon wander. The other side of the single opens with a resounding statement against dark days, a pop gem which is classic J'aime (pun intended!). The title itself (a tribute of sorts to The Go-Betweens' "This Girl, Black Girl") indicates what we can expect from this song - but apart from the obvious influence of Grant MacLennan's shiny pop, we can hear echoes of jangle pop, and the wall of sound too, the one Jack Nietzsche built alongside Phil Spector. The icing on the cake (or maybe frosting?) are Patricia de la Fuente's autoharp chords, straight to your heart, plus her beautiful harmony backing vocals in the second part of the song. “J’aime en la noche eterna” ends where it started, withdrawing back to the darkest hour: a visit to Honolulu's perfumed night, among wild hibiscus flowers and Martin Denny's bird sounds. J'aime is a master of the instrumental, and this song proves it once more: lounge backing congas, dark twangy guitars in the fashion of Bill Justis or The Ventures, and hawaiian lap steel guitars complete this brilliant tune.