Jamison Young is an enigmatic musician whose music is an eclectic mix of a number of styles, all blended together to make a smooth, unified sound. His recent CD, Shifting Sands of a Blue Car, contains music that is a smorgasbord of sound in that it is interesting, soothing, stimulating, dull and sometimes overwhelming. Smorgasbords are enjoyable, colorful, sometimes entertaining and often delicious. However, with Jamison Young, as with smorgasbords, the challenge can be finding something fresh, palatable and worth a second trip.

This CD has printed lyrics that allow the listener to sample the music and the words. There are also two videos, "Cold World" and "Crush," both of which were difficult to watch while listening, especially for those who don't have a DVD player or a spare child around to set up the existing DVD player. As it is, the two videos were unremarkable, although on the second one, "Crush," I did fear for the safety of Young since he did much of his singing on a cliff overlooking a bay, no doubt to impress us with the metaphor of losing love is like falling off a cliff. The lyrics drive the songs, which then allow the listener to revisit a particular song, and find more layers. However, the music was a little bit of a lot of styles, with the artist playing slide guitar, bass, trumpet, drums, keyboards and so on.

One of the smarter songs is the sixth, "Soldiers of Happiness." Its lyrics are a commentary on the effects time and change have upon the dreams and desires of a young person. Young sings, "the soldiers of happiness have gone to sleep/the mirror on the mantelpiece tells me its time to leave/because the soldiers of happiness have gone to sleep/why do I feel so much pain/when no one remembers anything anyway/no one cares what you say people within their space/cause the soldiers of happiness have gone to sleep." Clearly, the appeal of this song is in its strong lyrics, its emphasis on the universal nature of feelings and the sad bite of a sour apple, particularly when the apple looked so good. Youthful dreams added to adult responsibilities, does not make for wish fulfillment, and so, too does a CD as ambitious as this one was. Next time, I'll stick to ordering from the menu.