Crowley, Adrian: Measure Of Joy (CD)

Four years after The Watchful Eye Of The Stars, Adrian Crowley returns with a new John Parish-produced album Measure Of Joy released on the brand new label Valley Of Eyes Records.

This is album 10 for Crowley: an achievement number and maybe even a career high, but the music doesn't bother with that. They are just great songs. Crowley is a song-writer and a poet. Here, also, he is in the company of John Parish, who is always more than a producer. He's been present in the beautiful The Watchful Eye Of The Stars (2021) and they'd met in the '90s. They weren't in touch again for many years until a mutual friend, Nadine Khouri asked Crowley to contribute backing vocals to her album that she was making with John. And so came the collaboration. Nadine Khouri is here too, in backing vocals for Adrian now, and her mysterious voice makes it all sound so rounded but not perfect, like stones in the riverbed.

Measure Of Joy is a nocturnal album. Not in the usual commonplace sense of dark and moody though it can be. The night is present in the sounds that can only be noticed when most things rest. In the lost transmission and the ghost lips that talk on the phone over sleepy jazz.

1. Lost At Last
2. Measure Of Joy
3. Tangled
4. Swimming In The Quarry
5. Genevieve Of The Mountain
6. Drunk On Promises
7. Deep Dark Blue
8. The Trembling Cup
9. Brother Was A Runaway
10. Transmission Lost
11. Cherry Blossom Soft Confetti