Listening to J. D. McPherson’s album in my room in college, surrounded by the detritus of unread books for unwritten essays and a disturbing number of mugs of half-drunk coffee, does it a disservice. Signs and Signifiers is music made for dancing. Turn up the volume and picture yourself at a basement dance party back in the 50s. Stretching the imagination too much? Try Itchy Feet, or at the very least the ‘cheese’ floor of Park End during a Grease medley.
Yet tagging Signs and Signifiers with all the obvious labels (‘rock ‘n’ roll’, ‘retro’, ‘rockabilly’ ) undervalues its complexity. ‘Country Boy’ borrows a piano loops from the Wu Tang Clan’s Enter the Wu-Tang , whilst the tremolo guitar of ‘Signs and Signifiers’ is based on Johnny Marr’s part in ‘How Soon Is Now?’ Nevertheless, the album largely plays it straight. Innovative it is not; fervent, toe-tapping and alive it is. Rooting itself firmly in the 1950s, the albums still sounds contemporary in its heady, warm enthusiasm. On ‘Wolf Teeth’ McPherson almost growls at times, rasping like a pre-war Elvis, scat-singing, whooping and hollering over ragged jazz/blues piano. ‘Fire Bug’ features spiky bass cutting between angular guitar lines, building to a raucous cacophony. ‘Scratching Circles’ drops midway through to just piano, hand claps and vocals. But even when distilled to its essence, the song retains all the energy and joy of McPherson’s other offerings; with his rock ‘n’ roll, melody and rhythm suffice without any extraneous trickery.
Aside from the rather lacklustre ‘A Gently Awakening’, Signs and Signifiers rips through from start to finish. Recorded with vintage microphones and a 1960s tape machine, the album aptly uses to the analogue production of its forebearers. Highlights ‘North Side Gal’ and ‘Dimes For Nickels’ present the very best of the EP: visceral, swinging, liberated.
4/5
