Quickly, Quickly
The Long and Short of It

The underground scene swarms with artists naturally unable to feel satisfaction for their genre niche or the specific audience they have conquered.

Last year on these pages, I wrote with pleasure about Quadeca's explosion thanks to "I Didn't Mean to Haunt You." Well, even quickly, quickly's popularity originated online, albeit in a more sideways manner.

Graham Jonson, a pianist and multi-instrumentalist based in Portland, began in the last decade to publish his self-produced tracks under this alias on SoundCloud. Success came quietly over the years: the lo-fi hip-hop coordinates of his productions have secured him increasingly permanent spots in relaxation and concentration playlists, and so his name has spread to other platforms, primarily YouTube.

Fully emerging from his niche, the artist recounts that he has significantly diversified his listening habits thanks to a Spotify subscription he obtained in 2018. "The Long and Short of It," released in 2021 for Brooklyn-based Ghostly International, is both the culmination of his maturation and the first step of a career that promises to be noteworthy.

Jonson does not entirely renounce his past, but in this full-length, very little of hip-hop remains, perhaps just the rhythm section of "Shee" (and it's important to note that in this project he plays almost all the instruments). The shifting and fragmented structures of youthful beats have given way to greater awareness and cohesiveness. A traditional singer-songwriter approach (many have compared some episodes of the album to the music of fellow Portlander Elliott Smith) mixes with the Internet music experience and with genre contours that are quite blurred.

The opening track, "Phases", is a riot of sounds and colors, a rollercoaster unfurling along jazz fusion coordinates and boasting numerous beautifully assembled sections. Introduced by the evocative verses of Sharrif Simmons, it sets its premises with natural sounds and light percussion, gently ushering us to the verse, sung by Jonson's almost indifferent voice. Cosmological metaphors and states of mind interweave, while guitar dialogues, an evocative breakdown (dominated, unsurprisingly, by the phaser), and a liberating saxophone solo follow each other.

It would be excessive to expect the same grandeur from the rest of the album, which nonetheless maintains excellent levels, relying on less flashy but equally seductive tools and stylistically approaching—proportionally—the vulnerability of Frank Ocean. The variety is notable, but the string arrangements and habitual deviations from the song form lend coherence to the whole.

In an album with excellent production, the only uncertain element is the voice. The falsetto Jonson wields in the chorus of "Shee", a ballad with neo-soul hues, is a pleasant diversion from his understandably limited repertoire. Less successful vocally is the Radiohead-esque "I Am Close to the River", which nevertheless enchants and hypnotizes thanks to a masterful string arrangement.

Also noteworthy is the autumnal guitar groove in the lovely "Everything Is Different (to Me)", accompanied by the usual orchestral swell, as well as the textual introspection of the uptempo "Feel" ("Something in his face just cuts right through me / The amount he gave and what little he received / I can see truth in the way he's healing / A little like me, a little devoid of feeling / Could it be the same breath that we're breathing?").

Despite some moments that are perhaps too minimal ("Come Visit Me") and a couple of redundant interludes, "The Long and Short of It" is indeed a charming "second debut" for quickly, quickly, a work showing boundless potential and extraordinary creativity.