albums
orange watches & lost loves
oh my starling
Wells understands the use of space in songwriting -- instead of filling out every square inch of sound, he allows the tracks to breathe on their own. Besides the warmly creeping effect of his actual writing, it's what Wells does with the space on orange watches that makes it such a success. Double-tracked, quivering vocals, haunted piano, directing acoustic guitar and some drum machine beats add a depth that belies the album's humble mannerisms and lo-fi production quality.
Highlights include the melodic, buzzingly angular "The Ballad of the Orange Watch," which makes one think Indie Pop collective Elephant 6 might be making a membership drive call soon, and the aching "Jean-Marie" and "Mistaken Affections," which best show off Wells' adroit emotion-into-music ability -M.Breen citybeat
Jason Wells of For Algernon is one of the finest young, subtle songwriters in our area thanks to his emotive, honest approach, which always reveals the edges of the human condition in a way that leaves you wondering if Wells has been reading your diary. Inspired by collaborations with one of Dayton’s finest bands, Sleepybird, he concocted the album Oh My Starling (a more fleshed-out, visceral version of Wells’ Indie stylings) - Mike Breen, Citybeat
con(sequence)
an ungentlemanly act at sea
these two albums are currently only available at shows or by sending a direct message to foralgernon at gmail.com
here is a link to an interview with jason about the two records for local paper Citybeat
starling redux E.P.
The new E.P featuring the single "Alice" from the forthcoming 2012 record, 4 new recordings of songs from "Oh, My Starling" with the current line-up and an unreleased demo from the vault.