Patience is the greatest of virtues, but there comes a point when over-nurturing patience breeds idleness or even cowardice. To the casual onlooker, Sam Jones’ career trajectory may have hit obsolescence long ago, but the good things in life require years of toil, and its results come to those who truly wait. After time spent hopping among influential Bristol-based acts like Movietone, Crescent, Flying Saucer Attack, Green Eye Foundation, and Minotaur Shock, the Melbourne-transplanted Jones decided to deliver a second album under the name The Balky Mule, a solo vehicle that he has kept active, but quiet, for the better part of a decade. The Length of the Rail will not make his nondescript birth moniker a household name, but this master-crafted set of emotionally intimate shots should put his stage name on the lips of anyone whose lips have taste.
Like of Montreal’s Skeletal Lamping, The Length of the Rail was birthed by stringing together pieces of recorded noises, electronic snippets, and song sketches. But unlike Kevin Barnes’ latest (and to assuage fears of what this album is and what it's not), there is no sign of superfluous pomp or utter schizophrenia guiding the recording. The Length of the Rail is a steady, enjoyable voyage that has a feeling of wholeness and, minus a couple of brief instances of help, sounds like Jones recorded the album alone in his bedroom with a battery of outmoded electronic equipment before adding traditional guitar/bass/drums accompaniment -- which is exactly what he did.
It is not as quiet and spare as you would think. And the of Montreal mention is not as ludicrous as it seems either. There are tracks -- like the can-tap rhythmic "Before Too Long" and the “Simon in the Land of Chalk Drawings” ode “Chalk” -- that have the same positive indie jump as of Montreal's Cherry Peel. Moreover, there is an insistence on earnest presentation, with Jones singing child-like flat but hopeful and effusively charming. Like a host of electronically-inclined acts, Jones plays simple songs with electronics, but they're creates differently -- instead of adding superfluous sounds to already acoustic-rendered gems, many of the tracks here sound like they were started with nothing more than rhythmic blips before being accessorized by bucolic flourishes. Neither “side” of the sound-divide feels tacked-on nor is either injected in lieu of a weak song. While the tunes on The Length of the Rail stem from electronic experimentations first and foremost, there is also a heavy folk feel to the album, as Jones revels in the everyday and the forever.
The set is strong, but The Length of the Rail has some transcendently beautiful moments on it that particularly speak to Jones’ strengths as a songwriter rather than as a multi-instrumental go-to guy. "Wireless" is one of the album’s centerpieces, an absolutely stunning Village Green-like rumination with a chorus that provides the catchiest thing on the album (with the exception of the equally excellent “Range”). The Syd Barrett-influenced "Jisaboke" tells a well-worded tale about time-fragmenting and is highlighted by Jones’ sensitive fragile croon. Opener “Dust Bird Baths” moseys along with what sounds like an e-tuba for a bassline, accentuated by a jaunty “la-la” chorus smeared with loud waves of distortion. When you add the bossa-swing of “We Sometimes Write,” the neat instrumental “Instead,” and the superb title track, you have a record that makes picking favorites somewhat arbitrary and irrelevant.
Comprised of 15 underplayed tracks, some will say that The Length of the Rail goes to great lengths to tell very little at all. But ignore these stubborn souls and take a chance on this timeless little beauty of an album. The Length of the Rail shows an artist excelling at capturing small moments and bringing them to life with restraint and beauty. It is an unassuming record, but one that will affect you more than you would initially think it could or should. Good things do indeed come to those who wait, but after living with this album for just a short while, you will agree that another eight years for the next Balky Mule album will simply not do.
1. Dust Bird Baths
2. Before Too Long
3. Jisaboke
4. A Moth Like a Woodchip
5. Blinking
6. Wireless
7. Chalk
8. The Length of the Rail
9. Range
10. Illuminated Numbers
11. Paper Crane
12. Instead
13. We Sometimes Write
14. Glass Boat
15. Tell Me Something Sweet
More about: The Balky Mule
