catalog albums
WANDERLUST (2018)
TRANSITIONS (2016)
THREE (2013)
SO WIRED (2011)
BUILD A FIRE (2009)
WANDERLUST (2018)
Wanderlust is Joe Eglash's fifth solo album, and second in a row (along with 2016's Transitions) to offer a strong theme: in this case, wanderlust, contentedness, and the pursuit of happiness. This is real music of human imperfection, for those living with their eyes open, dealing with all of our common trials—fighting the waves away.
Wanderlust has the potential to change you; to give you that muscle memory of a time in your life when you discover a great album.
FULL OF WANDERLUST
Remember when a great album marked a time in your life and the sound of those songs stayed with you forever? Joe Eglash's new album, Wanderlust, might be that album. Open your mind and arms and let its songs in.
Got to keep moving, movement is soothing... And so, on this, Joe Eglash's fifth self-contained solo album (completely performed, arranged, produced, recorded, and mixed by Joe), the continuing journey and growth of his songwriting and production have come far yet again. Pristine, clear Jeff Lynne-inspired production mixes with impeccable songwriting and performances showing the range and restraint of a pro.
Wanderlust opens with the Petty-Wilburys-Harrison-Springsteen-ELO-esque groove of Every Day I Wake Up, containing deceivingly-complex themes of aging and shpilkes. The anthemic head-bobber Everything Is Clear shows off Joe's Mayfield-McCartney falsetto conveying some of the heaviest themes of any Eglash tune to date. Power pop daydreams like Gotta Wonder, What Can I Do, or the title track are caught somewhere between Sgt. Pepper, Live at Budokan and, as a close musician friend of Joe's said, "lost tracks from the never-made third Jellyfish album."
Everything on Joe's album is played live, with his own hands—no samples, loops, or chicanery of any sort—just musicianship. Instruments like the Turkish baglama, octave mandolin, or lap steel guitar sound real because Joe actually plays them on songs like the last-minute addition Buy You a Rose, Celtic-inspired Father and Mother, and prog-rock slick album-closer Feels Like Being Loved. Fighting the Waves Away, the end of the first 'side' of the album, is an elegiac statement of human failure, love, fear, and dealing with heavy emotion, with a jazzy funk groove. Rockers borne of Cheap Trick, the Kinks, and the Stones contain, upon repeated listening, many layers of musical and lyrical depth and uncommon sensitivity.
Wanderlust feels like an aural-emotional home; real music of human imperfection for those living with their with eyes open, dealing with all of our common trials, and fighting the waves away.
