Staggering out of the Mojave Desert like a man who’s seen the light in the endless darkness, Jay Buchanan’s first solo album is a remarkable journey through soul music, country rock, southern gothic and gospel. He might still pose for a promo photo in front of a once thriving gold mine while wearing a lobster-pink suit that would make Brandon Flowers blanche, but his new album Weapons Of Beauty is as captivating and contrary as the image of a man in a tailored suit standing alone in the deserted wilderness might suggest.
The solitary figure staggering out of the desert isn’t a metaphor, either. Buchanan – possibly in the grip of some mid-life existential angst – really did take himself off to a bunker in the Mojave Desert with a gas generator and those self-same forsaken gold mines for company to write the songs that make up the heart of this album.
