Hey all, and welcome to the second entry of my music blog, which no one may ever actually read. I’m going to apologize in advance for several things. Firstly, I’m sorry if my grammar is not always perfect, and I don’t always seem organized and whatnot. I’m primarily doing this for fun, so I’ll do my best to edit stuff, but it’s going to be imperfect. Secondly, I’m going to apologize for the length of this particular post; I have a lot to say.
I want to give mad props, in the words of my youth, to Justin McKee for his work; I went to high school with this guy, he’s working on his second album and while he is a little rough around the edges, the music is good. He tells you his story on his website, so I won’t bore you with the details here. Suffice to say, he’s making pretty interesting music considering he’s had very little formal musical education. His first album is entitled Entelechy, which, according to Wikipedia, means “having the end within itself,” and denotes actuality and reality as opposed to potential. Thank you Wikipedia.
Entelechy as an album is very…. Sing/songwriter. It’s fully of deep lyricism and deep, resounding chords on the piano and guitar. The rhythm section almost seems to take a backseat to the bass in many of his songs. The focus is not on the guitar, but on the bass and vocals. He pounds on the piano, and plays a hard base, but there are no upbeat, catchy rock riffs that you would expect from a child of the 90’s. This is not to say that the album is in any way slow, or that it lacks power. It doesn’t. While it isn’t what you would call upbeat, it definitely conveys emotion in a powerful way.
I enjoy the entire album, but I have several songs that I favor over others: “Livin’ Lady,” “Cover,” and “Maya.” “Livin’ Lady,” is for me a very exciting song, mostly about growing up. Justin sings about being with someone, when it is convenient. It discusses the change that occurs in relationships both in the real world, and as you become more comfortable with someone’s presence. “She lets me in the room when she’s still looking in the mirror,” is perhaps my favorite line from this song, as it reminds me of my own experiences dating and in relationships. Often times your presence in the other person’s life is taken for granted, and the only noticeable difference between how you are treated and how others are treated is the fact that you get to see all sides of a person. While it’s an enormous privilege, it can also be painful to be relegated to this place. Justin conveys the pain of growing up, with the excitement in brings.
The song “Cover” has similar subject material, although it isn’t as explicitly about a girl. It’s more about leaving yourself exposed, leaving shelter and attempting to strive out on your own, either in love or elsewhere. Leaving yourself exposed, and outside of your comfort level can be a very difficult thing to do. The last song I want to talk about is called “Maya;” It is similar to his other songs in subject material. It’s a (relatively) upbeat song and waxes poetically about love, life, and leaving your heart open to others. In this song, as in Justin’s others, the driving force of the music comes from the pairing of the piano and Justin’s voice. They complement each other nicely, Justin’s voice is not very deep and in the majority of his songs he pairs it with a deep piano or bass guitar. The effect is cool, as he has created powerful songs that in some ways mimic hip-hop, but with 90’s rock subject material and vocals.
Justin’s newest EP is available on his myspace page, which I will link to, but is markedly different. My new favorite Justin song is entitled “All the girls in Brooklyn,” and pairs the traditional McKee deep bass line with a more complicated rhythm section. This song is more complex than his other works, but while it threatens to become overly complicated and crowded, it never does. The focus, despite all the other things going on in the song, remains Justin’s voice and the poetic lyrics he relates to us.
I sincerely hope that Justin keeps creating music for a couple reasons. He is obviously not at his peak, musically, and I want to hear what it sounds like when he works out all of the kinks in his style and presents us with a mature finished product. It’s also just really cool to see someone from my high school, that I played water polo with, become successful. I like everything Justin has created so far, and I hope he continues to make music, I’m very interested in hearing what he has to say.
I said at the beginning of this post that it would cover two different things, but I’m flagging, I’ll have to finish it up later. I hope anyone who reads this can forgive my grammar, and the presentation, I’m new at this but I’ll figure it out.
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