Jonas Sees In Color // Jonas Sees In Color

Jonas Sees In Color have successfully written a feel-good pop rock album. Their self-titled debut is a genuinely enjoyable album. The difference between Jonas Sees In Color and many other pop-rock bands is that this CD has enough moments where their originality shines through that you know that they are capable of refining their sound and what they do next can have more of those moments.

The opening track, “I Own These Streets,” is a good opener. It’s energetic and feel good and it has a beautiful piano line that reminds me of Something Corporate. The formula of a running melodic line that is transferred smoothly between piano and lead guitar is a formula that Jonas Sees In Color do well, and it can be seen in the opening track, as well as other standout tracks such as “Loose Threads”. It seems that songs with a strong piano essence are the bands strong point.

The bass is something that I also notice a lot on this album. It is very prominent and not often playing something conventional, which earns my respect. The bass lead-in to the verse in “Luck and Love” makes me smile in particular.

Jonas Sees In Color have on their hands a pretty decent debut album, but it does come with its weak points. The middle slab of the album seems to be clogged with songs that fall victim to becoming a stereotypical pop-rock song. But the difference is that, even in all these songs, there are elements that can be taken away to create something new that could be very successful without being cliché. For example, “Stand Tall” has a good chorus and great lyrics, “For The Fences” is an attempt at using elements from another genre and being diverse. However, I think that their weakest points are their ballads. These songs aren’t pulled off  strongly and come off seeming corny and too predictable.

By the time I got to track seven, “West Coast” I didn’t think that I could be surprised anymore, but close to the end of the song, the more aggressive vocals rejuvenated my interest. I was pretty impressed by the more passionate vocals, which also appear again on “Devil In The City”, which is a very strong song. It has a soft hint of a bluesy/jazz feel to it, with an amazing walking bass, and I’m interested to see Jonas Sees In Color experiment in this direction.  The songs seem to become more solid as we approach the end of the CD. “Outside These Walls” has a good vocal melody and “Water On The Rise” has a different feel to anything else on the album. I like how the drums are played (the louder and deeper tone of the toms) and how it is dominant for the first third of the songs or so. The key isn’t conventional, and may even have a slight experimental feel to it. This song is definitely a strong closer.

Jonas Sees In Color have a lot to learn about themselves and improve on, and I look forward to seeing what they come out with next. Their self titled debut has its fair share of both strong and weak points, and one can only hope that they’ll improve on this. The standout tracks really are amazing and it makes you wonder what they could achieve if every song on their next cd was as good as these tracks.

Best track: “Devil In The City” and “Loose Threads”