Admittedly, this assignment was originally mistaken for a chance to assess the work of John McLaughlin, the terrifyingly talented jazz guitarist that people like Eric Clapton look up to and admire. And while his work is to be respected, the prospect of sitting down and listening to an album full of sixteen minute free-form jazz instrumentals was daunting. This made the work of Jon McLaughlin (no ‘h’ in the first name), the singer, songwriter, and pianist from Anderson, Indiana, a pleasant surprise.
The unfortunate truth, however, is that Promising Promises is a horrible album. McLaughlin’s voice, while undoubtedly well developed, is stock at best. For his genre, he’s an entirely average singer. In fact, there are times when his voice is quite annoying. He also has almost no volume or power – preferring to rely on dual tracks and studio volume boosts for the high sections of his song. In fact, if anything, the only noteworthy vocalist on this release is Sara Bareilles, one of the two guest vocalists on the album. She had a bit of power in her lungs.
The songs themselves are as disappointing as the voice that delivers them. Any artist that claims ‘songwriter’ as one of their selling points had better be able to create lyrical and musical masterpieces. Jon McLaughlin is simply not capable of doing so. His lyrics are often cliché and abstract in a way that was likely intended to be ‘artistic,’ but simply came across as senseless. Most of the songs on Promising Promises are just long enough to make you want them to be over, and occasionally feature laughable little instrumental breaks, like the ‘piano solo’ in the title track. Any student of music would literally laugh.
If at least one redemptive quality of Promises Promises must be named, that the recording is exceptionally well done could be cited. Whoever mastered this work did an exceptionally fantastic job. In fact, it would be nice to learn that it was Jon McLaughlin himself, just so that he may receive credit for something. It’s incredibly difficult churning out an album, and it must be a terrible shame for Mr. McLaughlin to find he’s engineered a piece of sub-par work that somebody will love for all of the wrong reasons.
Promising Promises is a pleasant album to play at an unhealthily high volume while you clean your house or your apartment or what-have-you. It’s just the kind of thing you groove around to with a duster or a broom in your hand without thinking about, and it is perfectly suited for such a thing. Then again, so is anything by John McLaughlin.
MP3 Stream: "I’ll Follow You"
