Album Review: Sophomore effort Public Life by Joshua Lee Turner out August 7

June 29, 2020 Scott Rollins 1547 Views Americana, Carson McKee, Josh Turner, Joshua Turner, new music, singer, songwriter, The Other Favorites

While some of you may have binge-watched your new favorite shows on Netflix, laid off your diet or shared protest posts on social media, Joshua Lee Turner wrote, recorded, produced, engineered and accompanied himself on a new recording. Public Life is an intellectual exercise in eclectic beauty, refusing to classify itself into any single genre.

Turner recorded the entire LP in his Brooklyn apartment and has been releasing a song a week via YouTube leading up to the full albums debut on August 7. Keeping true to his independent, grassroots approach, the singer recorded almost entirely on four-track cassette, mixing the tracks himself. The singer has been posting videos of the sessions for his nearly half million followers and fans on his Josh Turner Guitar channel on YouTube.

I’ve enjoyed Joshua Lee Turner for about six years now, first discovering him like so many on social media and YouTube. He is not just some random burst of light that happened to explode onto the internet at the right time. Turner is a humble force of nature. Powered by a unique and accomplished creativity we see only scattered about frugally in each generation.

Public Life offers discerning listeners ten tracks, resonating high quality in both performance and engineering. The songwriting is original, fresh and yet draws from a thousand different voices familiar to anyone influenced by artful songwriting. There is a melancholy tone throughout Public Life. The album is like a quiet river, not betraying her secrets to us all at once, but carrying us along safely, until that river knows more about ourselves than we ever did.

Turner often records and performs as one half The Other Favorites with longtime collaborator, Carson McKee. As a solo artist, Turner truly lets himself shine and takes his talent center stage. This recording allows Turner to delve deeper into his own vision and expression of artist inspiration. Each song, as the album progresses, feels to pull the listener deeper into a tranquil valley, free of the unforgiving canyons of life, past the brimstone mountain tops of time. It is, as though Turner has shared with us just what is needed to maintain not just sanity, but serenity during such unpredictable and turbulent times.

Soft tone, beautiful melodies, magical harmony and flawless instrumentation all makes a beautiful balance on this recording. I think any fan of high-quality, original songwriting will appreciate the artistry presented.

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