Reviews

In the beginning there was Jonah.  And he was good.  He was in Far.  And they were good, too. Then Jonah hit the road running, with only a guitar and a small R2D2 he programmed to play beats and onelinedrawing was formed.  On The Volunteers, Jonah takes his singer/songwriter/ambient textures sound in a progressive level, experimenting with different locations, natural sounds, the voices of family members, and his computer. This record is more cacophonous than previous albums, reminding me of the inspired messiness of a Bright Eyes record.  Jonah revels in the mixture of genre's, offering expressive and melodic singer/songwriter fare one minute ( A Ghost) and then jumping to a Queen-inspired techno show tune (Oh, Boys) the next. The Volunteers is an attempt to recreate the haphazard movement found in his live shows, where fans keep on their toes as jonah substitute famous (or infamous) lyrics of other songs for his own.  Ultimately, The Volunteers has its bright spots, and its valiant failures, but the liner notes do suggest that this album be listened to with different trackings, so maybe I just haven't put the songs in the right order yet.  Until then, I'd rather go see onelinedrawing, Jonah and his robot, on the road.