Christopher Jack and Astral Orange Reviewed
Christopher Jack – Forgot How to Dream
Those 1960s pop-art gurus sure sold us a story or three. Has there ever been a better generation of public speakers? Who has ever managed to make the Western world dress in Indian attire, and the Eastern world want to purchase six-strings and write songs about peacefully flying off into the Sunset?
Yeah, they sure sold us on a few things. And did we get anywhere at all with all those hopes and wishes? Few but them made it rich, and not everyone got their fifteen minutes of fame as was advertised. But, boy, oh, boy, it must’ve been nice to imagine a world without wars and where people are free to test out just how much they can love and just how well they can create a brand new world.
All that dreaming’s left a mark. It certainly is the thing that Christopher Jack, perpetual psych-rock explorer, still hangs onto. Jack’s accumulated a good deal of wisdom over the years. And even in darker moments, he’s not willing to let go of the hope, or forsake all those dreams on which he leaned for so long. “Forgot How to Dream” is a song about a modern world going wrong and getting dull, and about a recent past that we can still catch up if we hurry.
Astral Orange – There Goes The Sun
Frankly, it’s not hard to understand how people, even in this day and age that lacks any sense of romance entirely, can fall deeply in love with the work of rock bands and make it their life’s work to uncover every recorded idea by certain groups of artists. Well, what else are you going to do for stimulation? Count trees on your commute and expect something from the evening news?
Nah, if you were to let your imagination be turned on by the people who are in charge of developing your brain, you’d just become one of those people who stare stupidly into the distance and slowly read billboards out loud. This is, particularly, why psychedelic rock, with all the benefits and the risks involved, will continue to have a great pull.
Astral Orange’s music isn’t defined by strict parameters, seems to have no great purpose regarding what it wishes to sell you, and won’t attack you with a pop hook. Nah, it just kind of whispers from the woods, daring you to take a risk on it. And “There Goes the Sun” will reward those looking for the kind of psych-rock that will pull their imagination to and fro, for the kinds of songs that break old patterns and form new ones.
