Music
Press
Jim Clements and the Right to Die are a mixed bag of personalities who come together to make a striking whole; from Maya Ahuja's dramatic and sometimes eerie violin lines to Jim Clement's hypnotic vocals, the overall impression of the band is an intoxicating fusion of folk, indie, blues and rock; imagine the Waterboys mixed with the Pogues and Dylan.
Clement's lyrics are entrancing and well-crafted. His tendency towards the macabre (Coming Up Roses) and infidelity (I've Always Been Faithful) is evident in the older material they bring out tonight, while their newer songs reflect on some of the quirks of religion (St Christopher's Travelling Blues - a song about a saint whose sanctity was withdrawn who allegedly carried an infant Jesus across a river).
The room was held captive under their spell for the duration of their set, the songs interspersed with a humble sense of humour and the feeling that the band are a good bunch of friends who believe in what they're doing. Judging by the audience reaction tonight, Jim Clements and his band are making some pretty big waves in the overcrowded ocean of singer-songwriters; maybe there's room at the top for one more yet.
- BBC
Toronto-based artist Jim Clements is another in a long line of fresh-faced Canadian singer/songwriters waiting for their debut album to make them the next Neil Young. Much more so than others Clements has got a heck of a shot, his voice warbling above the strains of violin and carefully picked acoustic guitar setting him apart. Sitting in the vein of alt.country, Kill Devil Hills presents Clements as a thoughtful, extremely talented lyricist. Not as edgy as a Patrick Wolf but much darker than your run-of-the-mill Nick Drake knockoff, Clements mixes beautiful melodies with stories about killing a potential lover's current boyfriend, and the oddly haunting tale of lost youth found in "Wendy Darling" (of Peter Pan fame, get it?). The odds of actually making it to Neil Young proportions are ridiculously slim, but if a bet had to be placed, Clements would be a top choice. - Soulshine Magazine
Jim Clements and the Right to Die are a mixed bag of personalities who come together to make a striking whole; from Maya Ahuja's dramatic and sometimes eerie violin lines to Jim Clement's hypnotic vocals, the overall impression of the band is an intoxicating fusion of folk, indie, blues and rock; imagine the Waterboys mixed with the Pogues and Dylan.
Clement's lyrics are entrancing and well-crafted. His tendency towards the macabre (Coming Up Roses) and infidelity (I've Always Been Faithful) is evident in the older material they bring out tonight, while their newer songs reflect on some of the quirks of religion (St Christopher's Travelling Blues - a song about a saint whose sanctity was withdrawn who allegedly carried an infant Jesus across a river).
The room was held captive under their spell for the duration of their set, the songs interspersed with a humble sense of humour and the feeling that the band are a good bunch of friends who believe in what they're doing. Judging by the audience reaction tonight, Jim Clements and his band are making some pretty big waves in the overcrowded ocean of singer-songwriters; maybe there's room at the top for one more yet.
- BBC
Out-Of-Nowhere Award: a debut record called Kill Devil Hills on Fading Ways Records. It has the heart and soul of all those old country records, but it's super-catchy and folky and front porchy - part "Broken and Blue" by the Fembots, part Crazy Horse guitar, part Will Oldham voice, part absolutely fucking heartbreaking slide guitar. Worth your time and your dime. - CHMA Radio Best of 2004 List
What is going on in Canada? Clements is yet another one off the production line of exceptional talent being turned out with monotonous regularity from Canada these days. On first listen, the baby faced troubadour comes across as a Costello/Chris Mills type song writer who's voice has a peculiar (thus engagingly distinctive) English clipped style about it - but lyrically he has a real sting in his tale. - Americana UK
Out-Of-Nowhere Award: a debut record called Kill Devil Hills on Fading Ways Records. It has the heart and soul of all those old country records, but it's super-catchy and folky and front porchy - part "Broken and Blue" by the Fembots, part Crazy Horse guitar, part Will Oldham voice, part absolutely fucking heartbreaking slide guitar. Worth your time and your dime. - CHMA Radio Best of 2004 List
In a world where competent acousticy-strummy-folky-singery-songwritery sort of people are ten-a-fucking-penny, you have to have something to make you stand out from the crowd. Jim Clements might have a quirky, high register vocal style, but that only narrows down the field to 300,000 or so. So I was charging up my critical bellows with a view to winnowing out a bit more of the chaff for you good people. But chaff Mr Clements ain’t… The name of Nick Cave has been whispered, but he has more in common with another Jim, Mr O’Rourke – especially on the transgressive delights of Coming Up Roses and Before the Beating Starts. I know quoting lyrics in a review is somewhat gauche, but how often do you get a chorus like “And in a cruel twist of fate, I met my true love three days late; She’d met another tender lover, so much like me he could be my brother; So I’m buckling down, trying to make her come around; A few choice words or perhaps a murder; I’ll break their hearts before the beating even starts”? - SoundsXP
In a world where competent acousticy-strummy-folky-singery-songwritery sort of people are ten-a-fucking-penny, you have to have something to make you stand out from the crowd. Jim Clements might have a quirky, high register vocal style, but that only narrows down the field to 300,000 or so. So I was charging up my critical bellows with a view to winnowing out a bit more of the chaff for you good people. But chaff Mr Clements ain’t… The name of Nick Cave has been whispered, but he has more in common with another Jim, Mr O’Rourke – especially on the transgressive delights of Coming Up Roses and Before the Beating Starts. I know quoting lyrics in a review is somewhat gauche, but how often do you get a chorus like “And in a cruel twist of fate, I met my true love three days late; She’d met another tender lover, so much like me he could be my brother; So I’m buckling down, trying to make her come around; A few choice words or perhaps a murder; I’ll break their hearts before the beating even starts”? - SoundsXP
Discography
Kill Devil Hills (2004)
When The Saints Go (2007)
Photos
Bio
With a touch of Randy Newman’s dark wit, a sprinkling of Nick Cave’s macabre romanticism, and a knack for story-telling that would give The Decemberists a run for their money, Jim Clements will appeal to anyone with a soft-spot for a reasonably literate songwriter. His first album, Kill Devil Hills featured raging angels, world-destroying floods, flowerbed graves, glass ships, grey-clad virgins, volcanoes, murder, self-loathing, redemption, damnation, all in less than an hour (and you could tap your foot to it). He’s admittedly softening as his youth slips away; his new album is largely about saints, but, admittedly, only the creepy ones. In an almost allergic reaction to the confessional school of singer/songwriters, Clements does not want to tell you what to feel, as he hardly knows himself half the time. Consequently, these are songs of ambiguity, hidden motivation, and, occasionally, outright deception (and we're not talking little white lies, either). But that's not to say there's nothing of substance here: as Leonard Cohen once sang, "There is a crack in everything. That's how the light gets in."
Mr. Clements, since his recent relocation from Toronto, Canada to the UK has put together a new band that goes by the not-as-offensive-as-they’d-hoped moniker of The Right To Die (which, apparently, makes the full band-name an anagram for 'This moth-eaten, meddling reject'). You can maybe hear some of Neil Young's messy prettiness in Jim’s acoustic guitar, and shades of Desire-era Dylan in Maya Ahuja’s ever-present gypsy violin. Tom Wait’s smoky jazz occasionally haunts Lucy Jordan’s piano, while Jim’s little brother Richard has been promoted from the pots and pans to the drums. Dave Gooblar (also front man of London indie-rock outfit Gooblar) brings his unashamed melodic sense to the bass (i.e. he thinks he’s playing a guitar). Clements’s unique and versatile voice has taken a positive turn after his discovery of the joys of cheap scotch and chain-smoking. The style’s been called Americana, folk, country, country-folk, country-pop, acoustic, alt-country, music hall, popular song. Who knows? All we can say for sure is that the band is comprised of acoustic instruments, but couldn’t sound less like James Blunt.
Jim Clements has shared bills with talents such as The Broken Family Band, Nathan Lawr, Boy, Paul James Berry, and Royal City. After a self-imposed writing hiatus, Jim Clements is back with his new band, a new album called When The Saints Go, and a heap of new material about religious visions, silent movie stars, murderers, road trips, and deposed saints,
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