Vancouver-based multi-instrumentalist Mark Jewett conjures up a unique blend of ethereal pop and folk melodies under the moniker Plain Mister Smith. His innovative sound is fully-realised on his debut album I’m Just Plain Mister Smith.
The recent release is a stunning collection of tracks that features heavenly soundscapes, intricate instrumentation and driving rhythms.
Lead track ‘Strange Strangers’, evokes an eerie ambience, echoing the mystique of the artist himself who hides his face. A wistful and intense start to the album, there is complete ease as it seamlessly transitions into the swinging care-free track ‘Flawed Diamonds’.
The album is bridged by the album’s only instrumental track ‘Chameleon Sprite’, giving you a moment to pause and appreciate the wondrous world Plain Mister Smith creates through his distinct layering of both melancholic and optimistic instrumentation.
The album features appearances from collaborating vocalists Jocelyn Price and breakout Canadian folk artist Jordan Klassen throughout. Their vocals come together on the last track of the album ‘Space Time Bends’, offering up entrancing and full harmonies that make for the perfect closing number.
Speaking about the album, Plain Mister Smith explains: “[The] album is a dog’s breakfast of lyrical jewels, exploring alien arrivals, self-loathing and delusion, seduction in space, and cat cafes in Osaka. Sonically the music creeps and rolls along and soars too, and sometimes the guitars and strings and keyboards are lush and pastoral, on top of which Jordan Klassen and Jocelyn’s Prices’ vocals can intermesh and hypnotise. Maybe there’s something here for music obsessives, who like their music a little pop but rogue too, where you never quite know what lies around the next sonic corner”.
I’m Just Plain Mister Smith is out now via Popoganda Records.