Album Review: J.S. Mahlon – Childhood

If you’re looking for a well-produced album with some wonderful singer songwriter elements, definitely consider this new contribution from J.S. Mahlon. It’s the type of album that’s nice to put on and ruminate, a soundtrack for meditation or focused work that reflects beautiful musicianship and engaging melodies.

The opening track “Beginnings” is a fitting place to start. At first listen you might pick up the atmospheric string work, but the more you connect with it you’ll hear the layers. It’s a meditative track that sets the mood for the album nicely. The following “Stray Dogs” has elements of synth and a prominent piano that take it in a new direction. Similarly, the vocal is prominent here after the opening track was instrumental. There are some interesting theatrical turns in this song that let the listener know the adventure is opening into a more avant garde space.

The title track “Childhood” has a beautiful, cathartic acoustic guitar that sets a calm and engaging mood. The understated vocal feels more like sitting and listening to a friend share than it does a song. It works; the intimacy of the recording pulls the listener right into the empathy of the lyrical message. This is a fitting song to be the title track as it really is the heart of the album.

“Land of the Living” shifts back to more of a rock style, with a prominent electric guitar and percussive elements propelling it along nicely. It’s a lovely juxtaposition from the track that precedes it. The following “Joyride” keeps the rock n’ roll guitar riffs rolling, along with a rowdy rock piano, it feels like a mid-20th century golden-age-of-rock type of anthem. The distortion on the vocal makes it hard to follow, but like any good rock tune it still feels like you can sing it at the top of your lungs with the windows rolled down.

Unfortunately I don’t have space to cover every track on the album, but since they are all so unique I do have to pick my shots. I’ll jump down to “Welcome to the Apocalypse,” a track that caught my attention both for its wild title and then for the soundscape that feels more “out there” (in a good way) than the rest of the album. I think I’m hearing a Theremin and synthesizer, but the syncopated beat sits in a surprisingly satisfying pocket on its own. At the midpoint of the song it swells into a glorious mid-70s cinematic piece and no, I didn’t believe it either until I heard it. This is a whole class on music theory rolled into this track. You have to hear it to “get” it.

The first track I heard from this album was “How Could I Have Known,” a song that feels like a genre amalgamation of much of what EarToTheGround was built on. It’s a perfect fit for our site. It’s got some folk rock elements while also feeling like a quintessential 21st century Americana song. The expressive vocal has shades of Jason Isbell and Rayland Baxter (and those guys are ETTG royalty). The floating, atmospheric guitar work balances with a rooted, gritty rhythm section. It all comes together for a rich alchemy. To be honest, I could go for a full album that sounds like this jam.

The album finishes up with “Childhood, Pt. Two” an obvious continuation of the title track. Feeling like the end of a bio pic, the song brings some haunting elements that are supposed to conjure reflection on the end of life (or at least the end of childhood). It is – in a word – unsettling in the opening. But, to be fair, so is the end of childhood. Stay with the track, though, because it opens up into a satisfying ballad that feels a bit like “coming into your own.” It’s an interesting place to end the album and it begs the question if the next album will build on this foundation.

There’s a lot about Mahlon’s songwriting that reminds me of Sturgill Simpson (more ETTG royalty) because of the way it so clearly mixes Americana rock influences with synthesizers and unique instrumentation. I appreciate the “no holds barred” production freedom expressed in this album. It feels like a musician’s playground and that might be exactly what childhood feels like to someone with such a gift for musical creation and production.