Bursting with Anticipation: Jim Noir

It’s just too smooth! Jim Noir’s Tower of Love is some freak hybrid between Simon and Garfunkel (but mostly Simon) and mid-90′s electropop within the context of 2006-based rock. Huh? The album bounces back and forth between a Nick Drake campout and a Bran Van 3000 retrospective while listening to Midlake somewhere in the background… OK, there has got to be a better way to figure this out, or maybe that’s just it. Jim Noir is something unique and he really can’t be mixed in with modern croon-boppers. Just when the album becomes too slow, it finds higher ground with an organ and synthesizer. Just when electropop gets boring, a momentary guitar riff passes by, merely slowing down to say “hi…” Tower of Love is a beautiful, majestic piece that pleases the ears by teasing them until they burst with anticipation. Consider my bubble burst.