Review Summary: Praise the king, praise Adjy. They're back, and better than ever.
July 2021. Sputnikmusic staff member Rowan5215 releases a glowing 5/5 review of Adjy’s debut album and musical Greek tragedy,
The Idyll Opus (I-VI), convincing me to check it out. The album almost immediately shoots to the lofty position of AOTY for me, a damn near spiritual experience in its beauty and orchestration. I wait with bated breath for Adjy’s next endeavor.
June 2023. It’s been a while now. Rowan has stepped down from staff and become an Emeritus. I’ve combed over every inch of Adjy’s music, digesting the story as best as I can, waiting for their next move. And almost 2 years after
The Idyll Opus released, Adjy deliver that next move, not in the form of
The Idyll Opus’s sequel, but a 5-track EP entitled
June Songs Vol. 1, described as “A collection of songs from the world of The Idyll Opus.” And it’s just as amazing as I could’ve hoped.
To cut to the chase, this EP is very much
not the grand sequel and possible finale to the saga that Adjy fans were likely waiting for. Instead,
June Songs fleshes out the universe and world that Adjy have built, specifically focusing on the band that main character June played in when we meet him in
Idyll Opus. As a result, this EP is way tighter and less grand and ambitious than the album, both in terms of lyrics and song structure. Despite this, Adjy never compromise their core sound or make any reductions or changes that could hurt the EP. It’s a stunner through and through.
For anyone who loved
Idyll Opus’s incredible drum work, I suspect opener “Stepping in the Same River Twice” will make you very happy. With energetic drums pounding a beat over Christopher Noyes’s gorgeous vocals, it’s reminiscent of the
Prelude EP’s “Praepositio”, merged with the more country/folk aesthetics of
Idyll Opus. Honestly, that’s a good way to describe this whole EP. The energy of
Prelude is heavily felt on “Stepping”, as well as the amazingly expansive chorus of “June Song”, and pretty much all of “One 4th of July”, but the EP also allows itself to step back and take time for quieter moments of reflection and love.
Said moments provide
June Song’s greatest cuts. “Here Here” is a soft country-leaning track that features some of the best lyrical work on this project, and the gorgeous “Idioglossia” contains some of the most tender and sweet lyrics in Adjy’s catalogue. It’s not hard to imagine that June wrote this song specifically for his love interest, July. Hell, it’s easy to forget that June is a character at all. For those familiar with
Idyll Opus, it’s unbelievable how easily this entire EP fits June’s character, all that boyish excitement and freewheeling, and the quiet love that comes alongside it.
I think it’s that aspect that makes this EP so stunning.
June Songs so clearly sounds like Adjy, but, at the same time, it also perfectly fits the character that Christopher Noyes wrote. It’s tough to pull off a feat like that. Considering that this is Volume 1, I’m very interested to see how this side-project evolves as more songs are released, and as we wait patiently for
Idyll Opus’s second main installment. Until we get there though, this EP will serve as a wonderful way to pass the time.
