by Don Snowden

If Keziah Jones' first two albums were very distinct but consistent within themselves, Liquid Sunshine sounds more disjointed and lacks that internal unity. It's still idiosyncratic, but in a different way -- not a bad capsule description of Keziah Jones as an artist -- and may be a transitional effort, with the mood and style changing abruptly from song to song. The opener, "Hello Heavenly," immediately sets the moodier, sparer tone -- there's far less frenetic rhythm strumming and stings pop up prominently as a melodic blanket on four songs. There's a fair amount of scatted vocals which show how Jones fashions his melodies from sound first. The dreamy "Don't Forget" segues into "Phased," which almost has a "Pictures of Matchstick Men" '60s psychedelic rock feel with strings, while "I'm Known" is uncharacteristically very simple and direct. The title track has up-tempo parts powered by driving drums that suddenly shift to unaccompanied sections, while the acoustic guitar thrust of "New Brighter Day" boasts some of that old-chopping funk rhythmic complexity. "Functional," with Jones singing over only his own bass, really recalls the early style, and "Stabilah" sounds like a field-holler Afro-blues with handclaps and background moans behind Jones' guitar riff. Liquid Sunshine is either a more thought-out disc or somewhat incomplete in the sense of material that hasn't been lived with long enough to develop a coherent sound and/or direction. There are some strong individual songs, but the whole fails to measure up to previous efforts by Keziah Jones.