The last that we heard from Myrus Jones was the 9 songs comprising “The Silent Spring” released in 2005. (This doesn’t include the several collaborative releases with other artists since.) What distinguished The Silent Spring from any other 20-year-olds independent release, was the integration of deep and mature lyrical clarity on “Breakdown” and “The Strangest Thing” with somber and intimate confessionals like “Storyteller” and “Joan of Arc”.

On his second effort, the Jones integration is complete. Compositionally, it is his most ambitious and accomplished recording to date. It’s also the most satisfying.

While many of us learned of Myrus by way of his production skills on Del’s tender and spare rendering of the George Michael’s classic “Carelesss whisper” which peaked at no. 54 on the Billboard Charts, those who dug deeper discovered a classic American tunesmith with a slight of hand for an identifiable musical signature. Songs like “Wallow” and “Places in my Heart” are remarkable demonstrations of craft; musically memorable, lyrically evocative and casually atmospheric. With playful music like this floating around, we might just avoid falling hopelessly to the mundane.