"...a hauntingly beautiful debut."
"Albums of this quality and originality only come around ever so
often—when they do it's difficult to not feel like you're listening to
music for the first time."
-Big Shot

"How about one word... phenomenal. What a combination! They make the most beautiful music. It's full of acoustic, but not one song is dry...HIGHLY recommended."
whereishelsinki.blogspot.com

"Amazing...they are definitely one of the best acoustic groups out there.
All I can say is that you need to listen to them."
attaqmp3.blogspot.com

"I get sent a lot of mediocre stuff, as MJ puts it, "A lot of 2.5/3 stars out of 5 stuff." Today I think we have at least a 4+ star group and that's a good thing man."
myoldkyhome.blogspot.com

"Their voices complement each other so nicely and naturally that it almost
feels like they are teasing you when you can only hear one of them. Beautiful
vocals, wonderful playing, you owe yourself to hear these guys out."
camerondeyhle.blogspot.com

"...you need to hear it for yourself...I don't know how they found eachother,
but their voices are both beautiful and compliment each other perfectly."
jeddeth.blogspot.com

"Stunning debut..potent abstract imagery...classic and timeless...Be
glad that the record's apocalyptic themes are fiction, and that we
have this gem to listen to over and over, searching for hidden
meanings in it's cryptic, inspired wonder."
theindieportal.com

"Sublime sunshine groove"
(Named to Urb's next 100 for 2006)
Urb

"Amazing...they are definitely one of the best acoustic groups out there. All I can say is that you need to listen to them."
attaqmp3.blogspot.com

"The music created by Jed & Lucia is very sedate, and Jed’s vocals at the onset of ‘World on Fire' are of a level that Cat Stevens would be proud. There is not much in the way of instrumentation during this first track, but the harmonies that the two make during the track more than make up for that overset, whether planned or not.

Having one of the disc’s longest tracks start off “Candles in Daylight” is always a tricky proposition, but the molasses-slow tempo of Jed & Lucia would render even the shortest track into what would seem to some to be a five or six minute opus.

The style of indie music that Jed & Lucia play is interesting, but fans have to have patience with them if they expect to be rewarded. The electronic ghostliness of “Can’t Cage A Bird” adds on to the style of music that Jed & Lucia have been creating since “World on Fire” started. What results is a style of alternative music that is similar to the output of Bjork during her “Human Behavior” era.

Even if the disc does not crack the forty minute mark, strung along listeners will be able to stretch their experience to what feels like two hours. The compositions on this album are not extraordinarily dense, but the interplay of certain elements will cause listeners to focus in that much more. There is not a radio friendly track on this album, but that would only wreck the flow of Jed & Lucia.

The tracks on “Candles in Daylight” all work together and create a shambling, slowed-down experience for anyone that is focusing in. The one thing that I think would be a nice chance of pace would be a track or two that used a snowball effect to start off slowly and then reach a quicker tempo. I’m not looking for thrash metal, but I would like to hear Jed & Lucia attempt to break outside their comfort zone once on this track."
associatedcontent.com

"Sit. Lean back in your chair. In fact, go ahead and lie down when you turn on Candles in Daylight, the new album from Jed & Lucia. The threnody drifting out of your speakers will send you into a cataleptic reverie which it takes eleven tracks to break free from. It’s a harrowing haunting of the eardrums, a sweet little whisper in the key of Z. What I’m saying is, don’t put this on your iPod when you’re out in the world or you’re liable to miss your stop and travel straight on to the end of the line.

Candles in Daylight is aptly named: the music was so subtle that on my first listen it blended into the background of my brain like candlelight in the sun. It wasn’t until my second or third time through that I managed to quit drifting and concentrate on the songs that were taking me for such a ride. Both artists have impressively eclectic résumés and on this album it’s clear that their sensibilities weren’t home-grown in the Top 40 lab. Drawing on such diverse influences as Swedish folk songs, modern Brazilian groups, hip-hop and Bowie, it’s astonishing that these songs – which could have been mad mash-ups of trendy world-beats but, thank God, are not – have such an individual flavor.

Don’t play this album at a party or for a date. This is lonely music meant for a backdrop to conversations with yourself; if you’re the sort of person who talks to himself regularly, I highly recommend Candles in Daylight."
www.onlinerock.com

"do you remember the first time you hear songs? i don't mean the first time the song is played, music notes in some progression that goes quickly in and quickly out, essentially unregistered. i mean actually hearing, really getting deep into the music as a whole, sifting through the tendons of words and guitar parts and electronic splices and the heaviness, the gooeyness, the sentimentality, the blazing fire - whatever. me? i always remember. i can hear a song for the hundredth time and i will still picture exactly where i was the first, and i will flash there and feel always the same feelings i had at the time, mixed with the issues, the heartbreaks, the happy things - the whole great big package in a moment of who i was.

enter: Jed and Lucia. somewhere in my head there was a stop in the gap, and i caught the music instantly - no discretion between first time heard and first time heard. a mix of vocals that combine sounds of Kings of Convenience's Nordic duo and the breathy soothing of Colin Hay, layered with breathtaking (yes) and simple chord progressions, tinkering guitar that - though impossibly quiet - seems to fill every space with its eery majesty (yes). it is a strain of pop reserved for those accustomed to stopping time, slowing it down, taking it patiently one footstep after another. the entire album ebbs and flows in energy, laying out an almost Buddhist purity (yes) with ambient touches and even a very faint chant (yes) - of which i'm thinking specifically Answers. you can find yourself to this album, a soundtrack of spiritual essence and emotion that rubs its fingertips along nerve endings and sore, beating hearts, provoking. it is not another boy/girl collector's item; it is merely Jed and Lucia, audibly bearing their souls and banding up my memory to this place and time that i cannot let go."
www.noisefortoaster.com

"Candles in Daylight causes daydreams. Sometimes they’re different, but mostly it’s one reoccurring scenario:

Jed and Lucia are standing on their balcony looking out at hills on fire. Actually, the whole world is burning. Astonishingly, they don’t seem to mind, and they put on old hip-hop vinyl that mysteriously plays at about 1/4 speed, and at times sounds devilish and broken.

As the flames surround the house and lightly warm their faces, they decide to make something. With the vinyl already playing, the choice to create music is an easy one. They take words from their thoughts in semi-random order and sling them over beats similar to painters slinging paint at a canvas. The meanings are abstract; you feel the meaning more than you actually understand it.

They don’t burn, but the fire doesn’t stop. It’s a daydream, so laws of nature flux and shift; the flames become a harmless picture housed in a distant frame. All that’s left then are these mixed, complex ideas splattered on your mind’s empty canvas, positioned over perfectly tuned drum and bass, and accompanied by finger-picked classical guitars.

Jed and Lucia self-released their stunning debut in February 2006. Recorded and produced by the two in their home-studio in Chatsworth Lake, CA - a quaint civil war stagecoach stop hidden in the Northwestern mountains just outside Los Angeles - the record’s birthplace is fitting. Candles in Daylight sounds like it’s from - if not another world - some small mountain town that you’ve never heard of. It’s full of beautiful hip-hop and jazz beats, classical guitar, upright bass, strange psychedelic-atmospheric soundscapes, and low, hushed vocals delivering potent abstract imagery on topics like:

* Watching the world end in flames with a loved one

* The value of slowing a busy life down and keeping a positive outlook

* Lovers confessing secrets and sleeping alone

* Comparing emotional mood swings to a boat on water

* Hearing rejecting voices from Heaven

* A young girl’s unexpected pregnancy

* Painful break-ups

The themes are emotionally intense, but there is an air of hope and progress that carries you from beginning to end. Much of this veiled optimism (or veiled tragedy?) is the result of their tone and delivery of the lyrics. On the apocalyptic opening track, “World on Fire,” the line, “held each other laughing, watching dark turn to light,” might resonate with you such that you might not notice the dark lyrics that preceded it: “woke to see the earth in flames.”

Lyrical mysteries and pleasures aside, Jed and Lucia’s collective voice is so seamless that it’s hard to imagine one without the other; they swap the lead vocal role back and forth in a egalitarian manner, and the effect is purely enjoyable. Their sound is classic and timeless, comparable to Nick Drake, Kings of Convenience, and even Simon and Garfunkel.

This review wouldn’t be complete without much gushing over the gorgeously produced drum beats. Often resembling slowed-down James Brown rhythms from the 60’s and brushed Miles Davis snares and high hats, their break-beat kick drums are so huge that they’d make John Bonham blush. The holes in these grooves are so big that you could walk through them, bringing me to my next observation: there is definitely underlying intent in the rests of the drumbeats and bass lines on Candles. Each hit of the snare or pluck of the upright bass is so sincere, so emotionally potent, that once played, a moment of pause is necessary to soak in the meaning.

In closing, take a look off of a balcony sometime soon; look at the hills and think of Jed and Lucia’s Candles In Daylight. Be glad that the record’s apocalyptic themes are fiction, and that we have this gem to listen to over and over, searching for hidden meanings in it’s cryptic, inspired wonder."
-- Part Swedish Chris www.indieportal.com

"The band (duo) Jed and Lucia (MS) can be reviewed on Swedesplease but only due to a technicality. Lucia is the female half of Jed and Lucia and she was born and raised in Sweden. This duo (couple?) now live in Jed’s adopted homestate of California. You can hear how the two backgrounds of these artists mesh and meld to form a new sound. It’s got some of the breezyness that can be heard in some California folk rock and a little bit of the electronicpop sounds coming out of Sweden.

Jed and Lucia self released this record 6 months ago and I didn’t review it at the time and thus not taking part in the small orgy of press they received. They have now re-pressed the disc, improved the artwork and hired an indie promo firm to get their music heard even more. So I guess I’m joining the bandwagon for the second round of glowing reviews. Buy Candles In Daylight." www.Swedesplease.com

"Jed and Lucia come from the Pacific North West and Sweden respectively, but have settled in California making wistful dreamy trip-hop, a kind of Feist although it also reminded me of Portishead. Alt-folk electronica I suppsoe. Their new album Off the Ground combines intelligence and warmth, like eating meatballs cooked over a low fire on the californian shore-line, sipping a glass of fruity red wine ripened in the Californian sun. Like reading Kerouac, these songs speak of love and travel. I love it."
southcoasting.blogspot.com