“Morning Sun” is an anthology from UK artist jh (Jon Hunt), who wrote and played almost all of the tracks. The tracks are taken from his three releases: “Truth and Bullshit,” “Wanderlust” and “So Much Promise.” While jh’s music falls under the progressive rock umbrella (and what doesn’t nowadays?), it has just as much in common with pop music – no, not the crap on the radio! The album kicks off with two very catchy songs that could be hits in an alternate universe, “Next Time” and “I Wanna Spend My Summer With A Rich Girl.” Jh knows a good melody when he has one and he also is clever with a lyric.
Calling the music pop sells it all a bit short though since there’s a lot more depth than most songs in that genre. The lush strings of “London Road” prove that jh isn’t just going for simplicity. What I really LOVE about “London Road” is that right at the end of the song, it completely changes! You get 20 seconds of a cool riff which then leads to the disco-synthpop of “Lucy’s Party.” This song shows a completely different side to jh but there are plenty of those!
“Fort Dunlop” is a favorite track of mine. It sounds like a good old fashioned studio jam caught on tape. Just jh and drummer Claude Trejonis feeding off each other. That’s followed by the track “Angels” which starts out sweet and beautiful before evolving into something far more progressive. Progheads will enjoy the massive epic “Making Tea is Freedom” which isn’t excessive on soloing or filler like many 18 minute songs do. Rather, this song is still acoustic based like much of the music is and just has more to say than the rest of the tracks, thus it just needs more time to do so.
Most anthologies sound disjointed, but even though “Morning Sun” has different flavors on it, the songs flow perfectly. Also, fans of Steven Wilson’s more melodic side would do themselves a favor to check out “Morning Sun” by jh. There’s no reason that jh shouldn’t have as many fans as Mr. Wilson. Let’s hope this anthology serves as a gateway for many to discover his music.
