Jon McKiel
Hex
YOU’VE CHANGED
From his home in the marshlands of New Brunswick, Jon McKiel has established himself as an indie rocker’s indie rocker. His name might not be plastered across billboards, and his songs might not pop up in your coworker’s playlists, but that’s not how McKiel’s intimate, enveloping music is meant to be approached. On his latest album, Hex, McKiel proves once again that he’s a grower, not a shower, with understated hooks that crawl across your brain like a vine.
Following the cult success of his 2020 album Bobby Joe Hope—which should appeal to fans of Calgarian art-pop scrounger Chad VanGaalen, or Broadcast’s 2009 collaboration with The Focus Group—McKiel resumed his work with producer Jay Crocker of the trippy, Constellation-signed electronic project JOYFULTALK. Hex has a slinkier, more expansive sound than the largely mono Bobby Joe Hope, but there are traces of McKiel and Crocker’s influences from dusty hip-hop beat tapes trailing throughout the album’s opening title track. “Memory Screen Pt. 1” grooves on a chunky bass line, while “Under Burden” dances on a fleet-footed drum machine rhythm with gloopy, retro-sounding synths.
“Concrete Sea” is a cover of a 1974 song by Terry Jacks (of “Seasons in the Sun” fame), which McKiel originally recorded for Aquarium Drunkard’s Lagniappe Sessions. Its altruistic chorus lyrics (“No one is meant to be / Living here in a concrete sea / Everyone, including me / Wishes he could be set free”) slot in perfectly with McKiel’s meditations on love (“Still Life”), the environment (“The Fix”), and forgiveness (“String”). Powerful, poetic lyrical phrases like “memories cooked down into usernames” ground the album in the present, but these songs sound like they could’ve appeared any time between now and the psychedelic ’60s.
In his interview with Aquarium Drunkard, McKiel explained that “Concrete Sea” is a song from his childhood. “Jacks was at the forefront of ’60s and ’70s-era musicians who were using their platforms to speak out or sing about environmental issues, eventually leaving music entirely to pursue a more peaceful and natural way of life, something that I deeply relate to,” he explained. “The chorus hook has been in my head for about 25 years.” With McKiel’s masterful songwriting and Crocker’s miraculous sonic touches, Hex could have the same effect on the indie rockers of the future.
