Unwavering
…is such a good word, don’t you think? This week Cin Weekly and Citybeat, Cincinnati’s premier entertainment magazines, are running articles about the album and the show. Citybeat called us “The Unwavering July For Kings”, saying that Monochrome is “more daring than JFK’s previous work”. “curiously introspective Rock” with a “slick, positive spin”. Yeah! the articles can both be found online too.
Citybeat Article by C.A. MacConnell
the Cin Weekly people put my head in the bottom left corner of their magazine. my mom says i look like dennis leary in this photo. i want to say “i don’t see it” but maybe i do. the article is mostly about camping and getting busy. but i understand that reading about music is not nearly as fun as listening to it.
metromix/Cin Weekly interview by Rich Shivener
from Active Dayton “There’s no denying the talent of these hometown boys”
so far the only real negative criticism is from reviewers who were huge fans of July For Kings in 2002, and would prefer every album sound like the SWIM album. for fresh ears the feedback has been all positive.
it is fun to see what people think of your stuff after working so hard on it for such a long time.
i do think this album is of a high quality. i have put my heart and soul into it for a few years now and i’m very proud of the result. we all are. i think the most valid criticism that can be leveled against it is that it is a little all over the board stylistically. if you are open minded this could be a good thing. the downside is that i don’t think we have necessarily defined what the band is about sonically, and that is because a.) i can now as a songwriter and producer pretty much work in any style and have fun experimenting and b.) this album comes at a real transitional phase. some songs were written ten years ago (blue) and some were written very recently. we are hoping to push the band in the direction of the more recent songs like houses, emma, and say it now–songs that are pop and that allow me to use my voice to its fullest range, but have a good deal of movement and are built around guitars, and have an atmospheric edge. this will most likely alienate some older fans but will keep the band relevant and keep me excited about making music. really, we just do whatever we want 
anyway i hope you dig the album!
expansively
joe
