"Push and Pull" by John Connearn
Review
It seems so recently that I was telling you all about the debut single by John Connearn, the appropriately entitled "First Things First" and although it's still fresh in my memory, it was actually over a month ago. Nevertheless, things are moving fast for John & today we come to his follow-up release, that is to say "Push and Pull": which has come out on the interesting date of 22/02/2020
In many ways this is similar to its predecessor: it is again an instrumental track which while focused reasonably enough on John's guitar, like the first single has excellent drums also prominent, yet "Push & Pull" has a distinction of its own. Again, tastefully composed & played with a jazzy inclination, leaning in fact in a Crusaders direction I suppose, the title may refer to the structure of the track given that it definitely has two alternating moods, the first having more of an acoustic feel (it sounds like it might be layered & processed acoustic guitar to me) and the other being more urgently played electric sounding. It's possible that one is indicative of pushing & the other of .. well I'm sure you can guess.
As before, John can play startling runs really fast but he plays them so you can follow the melody lines: there are careful effects added to his playing for texture, but the overall sound is clean with no distortion and the tune is cohesive & memorable enough to make it clear that this is no showboating exercise: he's playing so you enjoy his song, not to try to elicit your worship. John is happy to use the word "noodling" in respect of what he does, and I can see why, but this is not self indulgence: it's a genuine song, albeit one where it tells its tale without finding it necessary to use words: which after all is a facet of so much music especially classical & jazz & it's interesting that instrumentals, while once much more popular in the "popular" section of music, seem out of favour presently. Maybe John can help bring them back into our experience?
You can catch John playing at Ziferblat in Coventry on 28th February & I'm sure you'll hear his two singles played.
