One Day XX is a special 20th-anniversary edition and a rework of One Day I’ll Be On Time from The Album Leaf, aka Jimmy LaValle. Originally released in 2001 on Tiger Style Records, One Day I’ll Be On Time was a gamechanger for The Album Leaf. Almost overnight, it went from a part-time solo project to a full live band. Tours with Sigur Rós and the founding of the instrumental rock band Tristeza also followed.
Melodies are placed on the highest peaks, the gentle, gliding wings stretching outwards in meditative motions and sweeping rhythms. The quieter it is, the more power it has.
LaValle brought in long-time collaborator James McAlister (Sufjan Stevens, The National, David Bazan) and members from his live band to reimagine the music from his career-launching album, working through the compositions with fresh eyes and years of experience behind him. The songs were viewed from different angles and fortunately feature a renewed ‘emotional clarity’, which wasn’t possible at the time of its original recording – only the intervening years can do that.
LaValle didn’t return to the music with the aim of raising it higher or cleaning it up. On the contrary, the young melodies are given the respect and the room to stand up once again. The authenticity of the original hasn’t been dampened, but it has been revisited by older and steadier hands, and the sounds are now influenced and shaped by twenty years of experience. Musicality can change, shift, and evolve over the years, but skill remains, and even increases.
LaValle recorded the album when he was in his 20’s, and time has given him a deeper insight into his progression as a musician. It is a retrospective in which renewal is embraced and the original from the past is respected. Fans will adore the reworking, as it remains true to the original while receiving a refreshed look; it’s the same body in a new outfit. One Day XX is music for the here and now, but it stems from the past.