Days Are What We Live In by Jimmy Behan (er4cd)

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Jimmy Behan's debut starts on a blissful note with 'Granby Row', despite its rather straightforward rhythm section, leading a procession of high tones. By 'Mayfly' it gets folkier – a genuine guitar strums while the lazy electronic production is having its way with melody and texture. 'Deeper than Heaven' adds female singing to this array. The demeanor is laid-back, reclining in afternoon or summer haze, but not completely so till the playful 'Complete', which artificially resonates with a feeling of being lost in endless possibilities of summer. The title track could easily be the quintessential one with its nice, minimal, calm thrumming shine. From then on till 'Hanover' the album picks up a certain serial characteristic without ever (to the slightest) losing its summer charm, epitomized in the title of the next track 'Summer on the Wall'. It is an oddly even debut album musically, let alone emotionally, and symbolically as a concept, some welcome aspect of which none of the tracks here fall short of conveying. 'Dandelions', a brief, minimal track, trickles, hums, dripping organic matter and a sample of humanspeak into the mix. 'Normal Situation' is a song again, guitar and piano accompanying the songstress. A more austere, suitably cooler air is emanating from the closing track 'Under the Woods', a nice minimal hike, ending with semielectric birds chirping. I don't know if it's obvious by know, but this sonic adventure, so self-assured, like owing its existence to some definitive external artifact, artifice or reality, sounds more like a soundtrack of a fictional narrative or film on summer than that of summer itself – while literally, apparently, being neither.