For hard rock fans,
Alain Johannes is the unsung and erstwhile guitarist in
Queens of the Stone Age and a founding member of alt power trio
Eleven with late wife
Natasha Shneider and drummer
Jack Irons.
Johannes carries production, playing, and songwriting credits for
Chris Cornell (with
Shneider),
Mark Lanegan,
No Doubt,
Jimmy Eat World, and
Artic Monkeys. He was a touring member of
Them Crooked Vultures, and plays in
PJ Harvey's band. He also composes and records soundtracks for video games. As he did on 2010's
Spark and 2014's
Fragments and Wholes 1, he worked completely solo.
Hum was born from the need for catharsis, as a way of responding to loss, grief, pain, and renewal, and their places in his psyche and soul. In addition to losing
Shneider to cancer in 2008, the death of his parents and
Cornell also took their toll. A very serious bout with pneumonia in 2019 almost claimed his own life. To say that
Hum is poignant is to miss the point: It is a work of profound honesty, unpretentious in both concept and execution. Acoustic guitars are far more prevalent than his Fender Jazzmaster. The title cut borrows a short fragment of the turnaround melody in
Blind Faith's "Can't Find My Way Home," adding dimension to his own track; his poetic lyrics reflect the cost of loss and the possibility of redemption. "Hallowed Bones" sees the Santiago, Chile-born
Johannes layering acoustic guitars against a droning charango to create a captivating melody that recalls the best work of
Jethro Tull, then delivers gloriously rendered crescendos. "If Morning Comes" combines electric and acoustic instruments in a dizzying meld of prog and neo-psych that evokes his work for
Lanegan and
Cornell, but directly reflects the inspiration of
Physical Graffiti-era
Led Zeppelin; the labyrinthine guitar solo at the end is exquisite. "Sealed" is a howling acoustic rocker drenched in reverb and blues, while "Nine" uses blues and rockabilly not as nostalgia, but as futuristically styled constructs with layered multi-tracked guitars, organic percussion, loopy electronics, and a scuzzy bassline. Closer "Finis" is ringed in minor-key Middle Eastern modalism as charango, and guitars entwine to meld exotic folk and psych. Its lyric is a moving promise to
Shneider, "All that we started/I'll see to the endâ?¦my heart will not let you down/You'll sleep with mineâ?¦."
Hum is resonant, sorrowful, and hopeful. It reveals
Johannes to be a songwriter who has more in common with
Harvey,
Marissa Nadler, and
Chelsea Wolfe than his hard-rocking male peers.
Hum stands with
Chris Connelly's
Art & Gender,
Nick Cave's
The Boatman's Call, and the late
Jackie Leven's
Creatures of Light and Darkness as a musical cartography of the masculine heart in all of its complexity, contradiction, and oft-hidden vulnerability. ~ Thom Jurek
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