Coming this May from Spectra Records, Australian four piece Jefferson's debut album All the Love in the World benefits from strong production. It surrounds the collection with a powerful modern sheen while retaining a breathing, organic sound. Geoff Rana's vocals remind me of a younger, Girlfriend-era Matthew Sweet's singing and the band demonstrates tremendous chemistry for an unit that has been playing together for three years. A listener will not have to wait long for a complete validation of this band's future. After a brief opening instrumental and two solid, but workmanlike, opening numbers, the third song "Weight of the World" is a marvelous piece of pop song-craft. The intimacy of the band's instrumentation, direct lyrics, and heartfelt vocal weave an impressive experience. The following number, "Losing Control", illustrates one of the band's few shortcomings - there is no true sense of risk in this music. For a song entitled "Losing Control", it seems essential to me that there be at least a single chaotic aspect to the music, but this tune has no urgency at all. Geoff Rana's vocals shine bright again on "Early Morning", a lush, gorgeous pop song with appealing orchestral qualities. The Hammond organ underpinning the song's movement brings added sonic depth. “I Want to Come Home" is another moving song with direct, intelligent lyrics and superb construction. I like the song's steady emotional climb and while I feel that it never quite pays off in a manner to which the average listener might be accustomed, it does not work as a weakness in this tune. Some songs are like short stories; they achieve a dramatic unity through tying up every loose end. Other songs, like this, do not need that. "All The Love" feels like the band's first real stab at a rock song on the album and it works spectacularly thanks to strong guitars and vocals, but Andy Horvath's drumming really lifts this song to another level. "Fade Away" is another solid but unremarkable tune, but the album's closer "You Are the Love" rises above its clichéd sentiments to deliver a wonderfully percussive, melodic finale that undoubtedly would make for a powerful live number. It shows that the band has learned a lot from influences like Snow Patrol, U2, and others, but they have synthesized those influences with their individual vision in a compelling fashion.
Check out the band's website for news about touring and future releases. Jefferson is a band that deserves to rise and, because of such a quality debut, it is a matter of time until their music reaches every corner of the world.
