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JDA
"...along
come JDA, who are brilliantly derivative and take their influences into the depths of their music. Although 'Sleepyhead' is
at times an influential backfire--making us want to go back and hear Nillson's 'Gotta Get Up' instead--the product in lyric
and construction is fine and has all the flavor of the '60s-'70s wonder years of pop. In 'A Fine Time' and 'The Piper Leads
The Children,' JDA is more original without leaving their Brit-Pop roots. Having lived in England some years back, this tune
reminded me of walks on the moors, dinners in rural pubs and the shrinking pound years. Took me somewhere. That's good. 'What
Has Gone Before,' I assume, is titled to refer to sounds of the Brit-Pop wonder years. If not, it works out fab, because this
instrumental medley of sounds is an aural documentary of famous '60s rock album 'feels.' Harrison slide-guitar riffs, Moody
Blues embellished movements, Blind Faith pianos, you name it. Again, however, we listen and become melancholy to take out
the Traffic LP and hear 'Hole In My Shoe.' To younger ears the sounds JDA that paint over dried colors of sound do not matter
in their similarity. My son, while listening to JDA's 'Sleepyhead,' was humming away to its catch. He, of course, has never
been so exposed to Harry Nillson that he would pick up on the influence. All this being equal, JDA produces and writes some
memorable tunes, even if they bring to memory others like them."
Frank Cotolo (former writer for Wolfman Jack, songwriter,
producer, and editor of the EVOR Newsletter, and the webcast Cotolo Chronicles)
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