Essie Jain - Until The Light Of Morning
- Written by Richard Seddon
Essie Jain returns with an album of self penned children’s nursery rhymes - no really, when you import the tracks into iTunes, (other music software is available... apparently) the genre comes up as ‘Children’s’. Not as bizarre as it sounds if you know what it’s like to sit in a car on a long journey while listening to children’s songs on repeat. So why not write your own songs that children will enjoy and with which parents won’t get annoyed? Why not indeed!
‘Falling Asleep’ has a similar feel, a waltz with acoustic guitar and glockenspiel, it’s a beautiful song, Essie Jain sings it like a prayer and you could easily get lost in it. You could imagine it coming preloaded on some chunky Fisher Price mp3 lullaby cot attachment – I don’t know if such a thing exists but it should and if it doesn’t then I hope I’ve made my point.
There’s a definite similarity to Mogwai / Sigur Ros in ‘The Magic Star’, which is instrumental but for a repetitive ‘ooh’. If you want to train your children into listening to post rock by the age of 5 then this is a good musical dummy for them – they’ll be listening to Godspeed You Black Emperor! before they start school.
This short album ends with ‘Midnight Starship’, an instrumental, a piano repeating a simple tune reminiscent of The Smashing Pumpkins’ Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness - now there was an album.
If you have children and don’t want them growing up listening to crap then you can’t go far wrong with this. You’ll be stealing it from their bedroom to fall asleep to yourself though. Failing that, if you haven’t got Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness then why the hell not? Get that first, fill that hole in your life and then get this for your kids. If I was really cheesy then I’d say it’s a great album for children of all ages but I’m not so I won’t. Phew, dodged that literary bullet.