Simon Joyner - Heaven's Gate

Sing, Eunuchs! - LP

US, 1995

Lo-Fi / Indie / Folk

Scraggy and bare would be understatements when talking about the music of Nebraska songwriter Simon Joyner. Released in 1995, Heaven's Gate is Lo-Fi Folk in it's purest form, soaked in the same kind of sadness that emanates from Jason Molina's songs. Heart-breaking Midwest music.

I'm very far from being an expert on Midwest rock, but it evokes to me a peculiar kind of spleen. You can feel it equally in Songs: Ohia's ballads and in Shellac's angry math-rock - and anything touched by the hands of Steve Albini, really. More than just a "sound", that's also maybe what Albini brought to the music of bands he worked with: a Midwest spleen.

Simon Joyner expresses this spleen in a clear way on Heaven's Gate, especially on songs like Prometheus, Catherine or Three Well-Aimed Arrows : such songs are not exactly desperate, there's also an almost imperceptible sense of humour to them. If it takes its roots in a disillusioned vision of the world, for sure, it also express a quiet detachment, almost a form of serenity.

Heaven's Gate offers some truly beautiful moments for those who don't mind a heartache, sometimes. (strong VG+/VG+)