The Onlys

Maintaining his gift for writing clever, catchy pop songs with a palpably lazy, effortless charm, Shotgun Jimmie emerges from a beloved, now-defunct band with a great, gritty solo record. Perhaps darker but not as heavy as Jimmie’s recent work in Shotgun and Jaybird, The Onlys is lo-fi gold, mixing smart stream-of-conscious lyricism with flashes of broke down musical skill. Jimmie’s penchant for self-awareness is evident on the playful "Duet” and within the Neil Young squall of "Onomatopoeia.” Referencing an old gig as a morning drive time college DJ, Jimmie’s "Bedhead” is a quirky kind of pop perfection, a slurred, disorienting alarm clock jingle the Folk Implosion might have stumbled upon. Similarly, "Janitor’s Luck” is all heart, masking sly social commentary about the romanticised image of "starving artists” behind a slacker’s cadence. There’s a clean earnestness to something like "Big City Boi,” adding another convincing element to Shotgun Jimmie’s infectious The Onlys.
-Vish Khanna