Morning Star Music Club - Liminal Zone [CD]

"Melody and harmony and words of wisdom. What more can I say. What more could you want?" - Kate Stables (This Is the Kit). Liminal Zone is the sparkly, soul and groove laden fifth album from Morning Star Music Club, a project led by Jesse D. Vernon (This Is the Kit, John Parish, The Moonflowers). Previously known simply as Morning Star, the name has been extended to acknowledge the collective involved in the new record - Liminal Zone, the band's first release in over ten years. While Jesse wrote all the songs and most of the arrangements, the bunch of close musician friends he gathered to flesh out the tracks turned the recording process into what Jesse calls "a kind of music club workshop environment," with production from long-term collaborator John Parish. Liminal Zone is a selection of both soulful and soul-searching indie-pop songs led by guitars and the vocal harmonies of Lisa Weisslinger (guitar) and Abby Tsype (bass) alongside Jesse's own mellow tones, with themes of losing and finding oneself, the breaking and mending of one's heart, and the fragmentation and reunification of family, community and even society as a whole. There's a lot of beauty and some wistful moments but plenty of sparkling fun and humour too including a cover of Jessie Mae Hemphill's 'Jessie's Love Song'. Liminal Zone is an album of gently ambitious indie-pop full of heartfelt performances, showcasing Jesse's expansive talent and deep, lifelong love of music, tapping into wide ranging influences such as the Velvet Underground, Hendrix, Dr. John and Leonard Cohen, with a dip into the cinematic - 'the sort of stuff you'd find in a Wes Anderson film, arrangements with a huge sense of scale.' Lyrically, through its emotional earnestness, one glimpses a kindness rare in today's jaded world. It asks difficult questions, yet there is no sense of urgency in the songs to find the answers - they're happy to hang out and float on the groove of Morning Star Music Club's bliss-tinged melancholy. Jesse D Vernon has been a full-time musician since leaving school. He was a member of indie psyche-rock band The Moonflowers during the 90s, has played violin for John Parish's live band, and is a founding member (alongside Kate Stables) of This Is the Kit in which he played piano and guitar.