J DiMenna 'If He Could Speak Now' album

J DiMenna's soothing voice, dark musings, lyrical prowess and tapestry of sound has amassed him countless adoring reviews and an ever-growing fan-base. He is "skilled at understatement" (Nashville Scene) and his "well-wrought lyrics and intricate writing provide a bridge between diverse styles, from Beatlesque to Waitsian." (Time Out New York). NPR's Bob Boilen says, "DiMenna's made a CD that's infectious... The kind of infectious music that I find myself singing and not realizing what it is or how it even crept into my subconscious.". If He Could Speak Now is a digital-only live EP which accompanies the national re-release of DiMenna's critically acclaimed album Awkward Buildings. The tunes here are taken from an XM Café performance at XM Radio and a show in DiMenna's former home base of Asheville, NC.

Biography
J. DiMenna may be a singer who writes songs, but don't be quick to write him off as another "singer-songwriter." In fact, the 13 expansive tracks on his debut Awkward Buildings have next to nothing in common with the guy with an acoustic guitar at your local coffee shop. Instead, these tracks establish DiMenna as a talented musician who has an uncanny ability to recontextualize his influences-which range from folk artists like Nick Drake to Belgian Sinti jazz guitarists like Django Reinhardt-into a unique amalgam that's simultaneously vaguely familiar and difficult to place.

Recorded and mixed over the past year-and-a-half in Asheville, North Carolina, and Brooklyn, New York, and featuring musical collaborations from a host of co-conspirators (including a Theremin cameo from the late Bob Moog), Awkward Buildings is a difficult album to categorize. The opener "Prayer Flag" is a driving 4/4 rock song with a solid backbeat and a vocal hook that ought to be illegal; "Peas In A Pod" is a heartfelt confessional track that displays DiMenna's impressive finger-style technique and graceful tenor; and the shimmering "Preacher" features jangly pianos and orchestral flourishes that bring out the subtle intricacies in DiMenna's writing.

"I like to cross over into a bunch of different places," DiMenna replies when asked if he feels a kinship with any specific scene. "People have called my music chamber-pop, art-pop and indie folk-rock and I can't really say any of those are wrong," he continues. "In some ways I almost feel like a composer in addition to a songwriter because I do all the arranging for the parts, even though I can't communicate that type of stuff with traditional notation," he adds. A listen to the haunting ragtime number "Raggedy Ann" not only confirms this statement; it will also send shivers down your spine.

Lyrically, Awkward Buildings centers on both the hypocrisy of organized religion and, moreover, the core facts that simply make us human. "There aren't really any traditional love songs on the album," DiMenna explains, carefully sidestepping another traditional singer-songwriter cliché. "The songs are more inquiries of humanity and those types of things; flawed relationships, whether it's romantic or familial those types of dilemmas exist on every level."

However, despite the heady nature of his lyricism, DiMenna is careful not to be too heavy-handed or pretentious when it comes to his music-after all, the main goal of the Awkward Buildings is to make a tangible connection with the listener. In fact, most people who have heard the record seem to discover at least one song that they can endlessly listen to on repeat-and for this writer, it was the stripped-down title track, "Awkward Buildings." "It's funny, that's the most simple song on the record," DiMenna responds, "but somehow it sums everything up in a way that people seem to be able to universally relate to."

Chances are you'll have a similar experience listening to Awkward Buildings. It may not be during the same song-or it may simply be a quick turn of phrase or musical moment-but we guarantee they'll be something on the album you'll be able to unconditionally identity with.

After all, we're all only human.

"DiMenna sings in a high, sweet voice evocative of Ray Davies and Elliot Smith in their respective primes. And his graceful, strings-endowed art pop is as richly endowed in atmospherics as it is in metaphoric meaning."
- Jon Takiff / Philadelphia Daily News

"If you like great pop music, the type of music you may hear Elliot Smith or Jeff Buckley write, you should listen to J DiMenna. DiMenna's made a CD that's infectious. Its the kind of infectious music that took time to grab me, the kind of infectious music that I find myself singing and not realizing what it is or how it even crept into my subconscious."
- Bob Boilen, NPR

J DiMenna is skilled at understatement… His sonic palette is often hushed and vaudevillian, with fine layers of resonating guitars, wispy keyboards, strings and xylophone and subtle, sleepily intoxicating melodies."
- Nashville Scene

"Terrific debut from this talented, multi-instrumental songwriter."
- John James / Syndicated Positively Yeah Yeah Yeah

"Brilliant... I expect great things from him for a long time."
- Bill Evans, XM Radio

"On J DiMenna's subtle singer-songwriter disc Awkward Buildings (Exotic), well-wrought lyrics and intricate writing provide a bridge between diverse styles, from Beatlesque to Waitsian."
- Time Out New York

"... His style tempts and entices, not unlike being mesmerized by the eyes of a cobra."
- Amplifier

" ...haunting lyrics, atmospheric strings and vaudevillian compositions, I can't help thinking that fans of Grant Lee Philips and Devendra Banhart would be just as impressed as we are by this impressive body of work."
- The Deli Magazine (Brooklyn)

"(Awkward Buildings) subtly intertwines folk, rock, jazz and world influences into romantic waltzes about the uplifting and the downtrodden. Bert Jansch plus Elliott Smith, with a dash of Tom Waits."
- Flagpole Magazine

"J DiMenna's one of those surefooted pop artists who can sound gentle and overblown, deep and airy, at once... Nice to hear a genuine craftsman."
- New Haven Advocate

"One side of his mastery resides in his innate sense of corralling legions of sound and manifesting it into one powerful movement. On the other is his grasp of lyricism and themes.
- 5 Stars : Mountain Express (Asheville, NC)

"Music that falls somewhere between M. Ward, Django Reinhardt and Tom Waits... Very beautiful songs."
- The Weekly Alibi (Albuquerque)

"A very rich and lush record that seems to fill all the proper frequencies with just the right amount of aurally pleasing sound, yet, it's fundamentally simple enough to be...eerily timeless."
- Kotori Magazine

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J DiMenna - If He Could Speak Now