Album Review
Album Review, WWW.ROOTSTIME. BE(29.1.10).
Translated online from Flemish.
Jeff Bell is not a world artist. At least not if you base it on the info you can find about the man. He has hardly a decent website but its as good as any music website. Based on his record, “Songs From No One In Particular ‘, we can say that this man may be heard. Although … “Songs From No One In Particular ‘is not what you might call an accessible record. Opener “Got No-One” is an ultra-short rocker that rattles along. The text of that song, including the extremely witty phrase “I’ve got no one to cut my toenails for” is not the most profound of words and could easily put the listener on the wrong track. But Bell gets deeper lyrically, and he proves that immediately with the song that has the dubious honour to follow “Got No-One. ” From “Only Words”, you find out what the singer/songwriter Jeff Bell is all about and there is a good half hour of pure musical enjoyment. For how short ‘Songs From No One In Particular’ may be, the numbers that populate this record are all diamonds in themselves, it is obvious that there are a number of uncut stones here. In fact, some songs have barbs. “Anne & Mustafa” is a good example. The subject matter of this song might make the listener think that the music is dark in undertone. The end of “Anne & Mustafa” is indeed a wonderful controlled chaos. Rust is then put through a piano for song “Hour Of Need”, which sounds pretty fragile. Believe me when I say that the rest of “Songs From No One In Particular ‘is worth much.
Its a bit frustrating that we dont have too much info about Jeff Bell. Maybe it’s just to create an enigma around his person that little information is released. From his Myspace page, we can deduce that “Songs From No One In Particular” is his first full album, he also has a video for one of his songs ” All I See Is You “, which in turn is not on the album. And what makes it even harder to understand is that after listening to the other songs on his site, there seems musically to be another Jeff Bell that exists. The music on “Songs From No One In Particular ‘ has no explanation and leaves you without any help at all times. I am aware that not all the music of Jeff Bell will be to everyone’s taste, but what was it again? De gustibus non est disputandum? (Lewis)