Review
Genre and Mood
Parson Jones make soul and pop with a hip-hop beat underneath, and Make and Model, their first single, is the relaxed, carefree and warm side of that mix. Les Inrocks’ JD Beauvallet, quoted by the label, called the duo “hip-pop” and the song a nonchalant find from California, arriving as if on a flying hammock.
Song Summary
The single was released by the Paris label Underdog Records in June 2014 and runs under three minutes. Kerry Fogarty is credited as its composer and lyricist. Beauvallet’s description is the most detailed we found: the elasticity and melodic mischief of the Bristol band Day One, but without the dark clouds over Bristol, the scene moved to a barbecue instead of a station kebab, shirt off and the beat out in the air. “Make & Model,” he wrote, smells of sunscreen.
Musical Breakdown
No source describes the song part by part, so this page does not invent a structure for it. The review and profiles of the duo give what there is to listen for.
Intro
The opening is not described in any source we found; listen for how quickly the beat sets the song’s unhurried pace.
Main Section
The voice sits over the beat. An artist profile describes the duo’s sound as electric pianos, synths, guitars and beats.
Outro
The single ends before the three-minute mark; how it ends, no source says.
Concepts in Focus
groove is the feel of a rhythm, the way a beat and a bass make a body move or settle. Les Inrocks’ “elasticity” is a groove word: it describes a rhythm that stretches and gives rather than marching on the beat. That is the quality the review praises, and the reason the song can sound warm and lazy at once.
The single also shows how a small label uses the music video. Underdog Records put the audio on YouTube on 23 June 2014 and the official video on 4 September 2014; the video runs 3:46, almost a minute longer than the single, though no source describes what it shows.
Artistic Context
Parson Jones are Joshua Hollenstein and Kerry Fogarty, a duo from Northern California who began making music together in the early 2000s. Their songs, one profile says, deal with mortality, reflection and modern uncertainty. Make and Model was later included on their debut album Clear as Day, released by Underdog on 1 November 2019.
Impact and Reception
Make and Model was Parson Jones’s introduction, and the praise their label chose to quote came from the French press, in Les Inrocks. It is here for its ease, a song that does not hurry. Put it on when the afternoon is warm.
