Only Just Beginning

Album review

As something of a summary of his previous albums and works, Only Just Beginning is for the most part (and perhaps in whole) a song-by-song reversal of Jason Webley's debut album, Viaje. The album opens with a soft ode to the rebirth of spring (in answer to the closing work on his debut relating to the close of summer). "Music That Puts Everything Together" reverses the entropy of "Music That Tears Itself Apart," with music almost exactly in opposition. "Halloween" is answered by "May Day," with the attendant juxtapositions of life and death, spring and fall. "Rockets to God" are answered with mining journeys for the devil. Similarly to the titular opposition, the music varies. Nicely enough, as Webley has an affinity for the mix of the raucous and the subdued, the profane and divine. The alternation effect holds through a reversal of a full album. There are some nice grooves here (as in "Mine"), and the usual mix as well. The execution just keeps getting better and the compositions cleaner as Webley progresses through albums, and Only Just Beginning is quite arguably the best yet. Sleek where Viaje was rough, complex where previous works were simpler. More mature all around.
© Adam Greenberg /TiVo