New York-based artist The Bones of J.R. Jones has shared his new single ‘Shameless‘, the latest offering from his sixth studio album ‘Radio Waves’, due out June 20th via Tone Tree Music. The brooding new song arrives with a neo-noir-inspired music video, produced by Blackhorse Lowe (Reservation Dogs) and Bryan Norvelle with Anora Cinematographer Drew Daniels as Director of Photography, and tells the story of a lover’s betrayal. Holler praised the track and its cinematic visual, saying, “Falling somewhere between the widescreen Americana of Roy Orbison and the spare, clean-limbed moody alt-rock of The National, the song sounds like the soundtrack to a late night drive through a neon light desert town.”
Check out the video for Shameless, below:
“‘Shameless’ is taking the long way home to retread your past,” says The Bones of J.R. Jones (aka Jonathon Linaberry). “The inevitable inner conflict and perhaps guilt that rise up from past decisions, that were maybe made in haste and in passion. I think we all struggle with the ‘what could have been’ question. What arrogant fool can’t look back and wonder? I am just trying to recognize that in this song.”
On the music video:
“I have always been drawn to an unsatisfying ambiguous ending. Endings that are never explained, nor make sense in the straight line of a narrative. I think because much of life feels this way. We never get to make sense of so many things. Human nature isn’t logical … it just doesn’t work that way. It’s chaos and we do our best to control it. Sometimes we succeed, sometimes we fail. It’s this recognition that makes the noir genre so appealing and that’s what we tried to create here in three short minutes.”
“The inspiration for ‘Shameless’ came from an idea based on the all tracks provided by J.R.,” says Producers Blackhorse Lowe and Bryan Norvelle. “We thought of the throughline to a story being told from the perspective of the character for each one of the tracks, and landed on this neo-noir mish-mash, somewhat in the vain of Lost Highway and No Country for Old Men. We wanted to write a story that could fit the emotional tone of the track — like a soundtrack; reflecting visually but not necessarily verbatim with the lyrics.”
“Shameless” follows the meditative ‘Savages‘, which Magnet Magazine called “An intoxicating first dip into Radio Waves…” The 11-song collection was produced by GRAMMY-nominated producer Robbie Lackritz (Feist, Bahamas), and marks Linaberry’s first time working with an outside producer. Moody and hypnotic, Radio Waves is steeped in the sonic landscape of the ’80s and ’90s as it excavates the past with equal parts nostalgia and curiosity. Linaberry reflects, “I found myself missing what it felt like to have an album change your life, to listen to your cassette of Born In The U.S.A. so many times you have to wind the tape back up with a pencil.”
Linaberry set out to tap back into that magic on ‘Radio Waves’, writing songs steeped in the sounds and stories of his own coming of age. He tuned out the modern world in favor of stark, lo-fi demos built around fingerpicked guitars and old-school electronics. “These songs live in the night,” Linaberry says. “It’s the sound of a kitchen heavy with the leftover heat of an August day and a table crowded with drinks, of arguments and first loves and first heartbreaks, of not living up to your potential, of breaking promises, of being human.”
‘Radio Waves’ follows his critically-acclaimed 2023 LP ‘Slow Lightning‘ that was met with acclaim from American Songwriter, Glide Magazine, NYS Music and The Alternate Root, who called it ”a record that doesn’t sound like anything but itself.” In March, he wrapped up his largest European tour to date with multiple sold-out shows, thanks to his dedicated following with more than 650,000 unique monthly listeners on Spotify alone. In recent years, the independent artist’s music has been used in a slew of films and television shows including True Detective, Suits, Daredevil, Longmire, and Graceland.
Find out more via his website
Radio Waves Tracklist:
1. Car Crash
2. Savages
3. Heart Attack
4. Shameless
5. Catching You
6. Ghost featuring Two Runner
7. Wasting Some Time
8. Hills
9. Drive
10. The Devil
11. Start Again
