Trapped in Amber artwork by David Galletly

Jonnie Common: Trapped in Amber

Jonnie Common's second solo album, Trapped in Amber is an amazing piece of work. Jonnie asked me to illustrate the sleeve.

I've worked with Jonnie a number of times over the years and it's always been a fun process - he comes at you with loads of ideas and feedback. With Trapped in Amber, we threw stuff back and forth for a while before settling on the fine linework and bold orange approach seen here.

The record is available on vinyl, CD and download from Song, by Toad records. It's my favourite album of 2014 and there's a pretty good chance it'll be yours too. Support independent music!

Big thanks to Jonnie, the Save As Collective and Song, by Toad.

Shark

Shark, the first track released, takes an existential spin around the garden on a lawnmower and provides the line to shout at gigs. What line?

It's a secret.

 

From 'Trapped in Amber', the new Jonnie Common album out on 31st October 2014 on vinyl, CD and download. www.jonniecommon.com/ songbytoadrecords.com/artists/jonnie-common/ On previous album Master of None: "I love this record' - Lauren Laverne (6 Music) “Skewed-pop amble ... a lo-fi electro-folk wonder” - The List “understated cooing over the minutiae of every day life ... transformed into bouncing astral straddling ditties” - Drowned In Sound Jonnie Common makes some of the strangest noises ever to be combined into such catchy, digestible pop songs. His first album Master of None came out on the awesome Manchester-based imprint Red Deer Club in 2011, and its combination of pathos, humour and charm made it a firm favourite, particularly amongst the Scottish underground music scene. I suppose you’d have to call this stuff electronic pop, and while a lot of the music he makes has some very strange elements, the end result tends to be eminently listenable, infectious music. Trapped in Amber, his new album, out on Song, by Toad Records on Halloween 2014, is perhaps less of a collection of breezy pop tunes than its predecessor, but I think it ends up actually feeling like a better overall album. It holds together more as a single, coherent piece of work, and with the more experimental stuff coming to the fore the sparkling pop moments actually end up standing out more this time around. For a meticulous crafstman like Jonnie I am always amazed at how loose and relaxed his music sounds, and for someone who peppers his lyrics with wit and fun, it’s amazing how heartbreaking he can be, often when you least expect it. Try contrasting the lightness of Shark and Crumbs with the horrible sadness of So and So and the melancholic regret of Figurehead, for example. It makes for music which sounds light and fun, but actually has far more depth than that, meaning that even once you get past the simple enjoyment of the hummable stuff, there is still a hell of a lot more here to enjoy.

Crumbs

Crumbs is the second single from Trapped in Amber. It's the most uplifting song about looking inward and comparing your life to that of a Roman gladiator-in-training fighting porcupines ever written.

The whole bird's nest in a shoebox section is a delight - a perfect combination of lyrics and delivery that show off just how damn good Jonnie is.

 

Looping Animation

...aaannnd for the Trapped in Amber launch gigs, I put together a looping animation that was projected onstage behind Jonnie and Peter (drums) as they played.

The above gif shows a little 6-second slice of the animation. In the full piece, the twig bobs about randomly for a minute or so. There's a plan in place to add a proper start and end. When it's finished, I'll add it here.