John Canning Yates albums

2024

The Quiet Portraits - 95%

The music of John Canning’s Yates really depicts a sort of place in time, it might be the Irish countryside of his home, but it also could be a forgotten past time hundreds of years ago. The air of nostalgia is noticeable from the get-go, songs such as “The Way I Remember It” or “Dreams Forgotten” tell simple stories about loving other people and missing a lost hometown. You think the mood would evolve and the single ready tunes might pop up like a popular music album normally would or even a folk record usually does, but this atmosphere of haziness exists over every single song and never really wears out its welcome. The are really are some masterpieces of whispered melodies abound: the six minute flute driven “Under Cobalt Skies”, the heartbreak of “Until You Find Me”, the still photograph feel of “Life in a Different Time”. The album builds and builds, crafting each moment as sort of a pause in time- its not quite folk music or country or 1970’s soft-rock balladry but some kind of odd hybrid of all of it, and that’s not a bad thing. See the tearful “It Could Be So Good”, which is delicate and littered with pedal steel and woodwinds talking to each other.

“Healing” might be the only song, oddly placed toward the front of the record, that succumbs to the Caribbean vibes a bit too much. The album order seems like destiny it is so perfect- “In the Stillness of the Night” shines bright early in the album, “October Song” is a shorter, peddle steel driven more country tinged version of this sound, “Faraway Blues” is the most upbeat song (and its still very languid) that may have more ties to traditional rock music and that flows right into the foreboding “Riches” which blows away everything before it with its soothing calm confidence. By the end of the record each song improves on the one before and the consensus is clear- this is one of the best albums ever made and holds up to JC Yates’ influences- Nick Drake, Elliot Smith, Van Morrison, and the best of the singer-songwriters. It’s a singular kind of experience, and stands very tall in 2024 as one of the supreme artifacts of its time, one with the Earth and maybe even a hymn to the planet itself.

Best Songs: Under Cobalt Skies, Riches, Until You Find Me, It Could Be So Good, Faraway Blues