Music Review // Sir Bobby Jukebox "In the Organ Loft at Midnight"

https://sirbobbyjukebox.bandcamp.com/album/in-the-organ-loft-at-midnight

The concept of "In the Organ Loft at Midnight" is brilliant.  As soon as I heard about it, my first thought was why hadn't someone done this before as it feels like it should be a way of many great artists to share their music.  The idea behind this in a physical sense is that you get a pack of cards (like trading cards) which have artwork on the front and lyrics for each song on the back.   Purchasing this pack of trading cards also gets you the digital download and as of right now there are only six out of the thirteen songs on this album streaming on Bandcamp.

For me personally, I grew up with wax packs so I really do enjoy this.  I know that people sometimes buy items such as a cassette just to show support for the artist and it becomes more of a decoration than something listened to regularly.  To keep these trading cards somewhere seems easier than a cassette you won't play as I have both boxes and binders full of assorted baseball and other random cards.   But you could also go all out and put these cards into a frame and put that result up on your wall as art if you felt so inclined.  

The first song on here is an intro of sorts and then we go into "Don't Say Goodbye".   This song has a tropical feel to it and it reminds me of something out of a Disney movie, "The Little Mermaid" perhaps.  That tropical theme does stay throughout the album as well.   Through nice sing alongs there are lyrics on "Tropical Bird Lingo" such as "I'm getting ready for the summertime again" and as this was released on June 9th it feels only fitting as we're going into summer very soon.  

There is a big rock meets pop quality to "Fortitude Valley", which reminds me a bit of fun. and then big synths come out on "Leaving Island Time".   The song "Nudity" is about just that and it makes me think about how when I was younger I wouldn't hesitate to take my shirt off.  Now I don't want to do it ever partly because of the way I look and partly because I had my shirt off outside once and got this skin tag which made me think it was unhealthy so I just try and stay protected/shaded now.  

As a concept I really enjoy this and feel like in time more artists will likely adapt this method of creating physical goods to accompany the music.  Having original artwork on one side of the card and then the lyrics to the song on the other is quite genius as well.  But I don't want how much I love this idea to overshadow how great this album is musically.  Whether it be on cassette or just digital, even without the trading cards, this is still my favorite Sir Bobby Jukebox album and it's right up there for one of my favorites I've heard this year.