This blog covered Brooklyn based songwriter JJ Byars‘ old band Hungry Hands back in 2012 and noticed that they seemed to be "going through a lot of changes" – as if that wasn’t the case for 95% of the bands out there… Well it looks like JJ’s band mate related turmoil led him towards a solo musical project, which produced a full album released in June of 2015, and entitled ‘Waterlogged.’ A lot of tracks in it are just vocals and acoustic guitar, although one of the tracks featuring drums is so good they make us think he should probably give the band idea another shot. ‘Migration’ (streaming below) is a song that can make your day, with its celestial melody that defies gravity and expectations. It’s also based on some kind of premonition, since it revolves around the lyrics "this year there’s no winter" – which is true, although the song was released last summer. This track, together with opener "Blue in the Face" showcases a songwriting development towards elegant pop melodies and arrangements reminiscent of a sparser version of Grizzly Bear, while most of the other songs on the record reveal more folky overtones. You can see JJ Byars live at Rough Trade on January 9th with The Can’t Tells and Bear Ceuse.
