Jonny Weathers - Jonny Weathers And Cosmic Scream

This is the third release from Jonny Weathers, the alter ego of London-based singer/multi-instrumentalist Gareth Proctor. There’s a lot of genre-hopping—much of it rooted in the 1970s—throughout these 10 tracks, and Weathers fuels it with consistently inventive guitar playing. He delivers poetic lyrics laced with arresting imagery in a vocal style that’s both streetwise and emotional.

“She woke me up and asked me for my angel dust,” Weathers sings at the start of the funk rock number “Babirusa,” while the acoustic “Indian Rope Tricks,” has lines like, “Feel like I’m picking up the pieces of a broken man.” “Hendrix At The Hacienda,” which doesn’t mention the iconic guitarist at all, sounds like one of those rampaging prog rock songs the indie UK label Fruits de Mer loves to put on its records. “Mongo Shaker” also finds Weathers paying homage to Hendrix.

“You’ll Always Be A Planet To Me,” besides having one of the best song titles I’ve heard in a while, combines guitar and keyboards in an off-kilter love song with a classic rock setting. Weathers switches to singer-songwriter mode for “Toxic Pop Soldier,” which features him alone on piano. “The Bullet And The Breeze And The Killing Floor” is another gritty highlight, with Weathers cutting loose an guitar and adding a touch of Rolling Stones with some “hoo hoo” background vocals.