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It doesn\u2019t matter if you\u2019ve never heard of Meilyr Jones<\/a>, or his former band Race Horses<\/a>. It doesn\u2019t matter if you think Jones is English, when in fact, he\u2019s a Welshman. It doesn\u2019t even matter if you\u2019re stumped on how exactly to pronounce \u201cMeilyr\u201d-because an authoritative voice tells you within the first 30 seconds of 2013<\/em>\u2019s opening track \u201cHow To Recognise A Work of Art.\u201d<\/p>\n

These things cease to matter, not because they are uninteresting, but because it is such a great record that it speaks for itself. It stands on its own two feet.<\/p>\n

2013<\/a> <\/em>is many things-a contemporary foray into baroque and renaissance influences, a brilliant pop record, a sonic odyssey with innumerable peaks and valleys. But it is also a love letter to Rome, the breeding ground for many of songs on the album. After the disbandment of Race Horses and the end of a relationship, Jones romantically fled to the ancient city, catalyzed by reading art history texts and Byron\u2019s Don Juan<\/em>. \u201cI got really taken over by the feeling of adventure and passion in Byron, and some of Shelley’s poetry and Keats as well. And they were all people who went to Rome.” Jones mentioned in a press release.<\/p>\n

And so along with everything else, 2013 <\/em>has yet another incarnation, as a scrapbook of Jones\u2019s time in Rome, and everything he loves in general. “I wanted to make something that felt right to me and expressed my interests, which are classical music and rock ‘n’ roll music, and films, and nature and karaoke, and tacky stuff,” Jones says. “And I wanted to capture that feeling in Rome of high culture and low-brow stuff all mixed together.” For a record so difficult to nail down, it is comforting to know that such a stew of influences went into making it.<\/p>\n

It might amaze you, as it did me, that five of the twelve tracks on 2013 <\/em>were recorded live in all of one day with a 30 plus piece orchestra that Jones assembled himself. Jones told press that he \u201cwanted to record it completely live. The idea was doing it like a Frank Sinatra session.\u201d And that idea certainly comes across in the grand arrangements Jones has served up.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s a songwriter with big ideas, delivering lofty compositions of the finest kind. \u201cHow To Recognise A Work Of Art\u201d confirms the pop chops Jones has been refining since his days in Race Horses, the sweeping orchestral arrangements bringing a whole new dimension to otherwise infectious hooks.<\/p>\n

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