Jon Brion meaningless LP

One of the most distinctive recordings of the early 2000s, Jon Brion's one and only solo album Meaningless is a master course in power pop-inspired art rock songwriting and production. Uniting psychedelic rock, classic songwriters, tape loop soundscapes, and chiming folk jangle, the record offers a vivid backdrop for Brion's wry observations on love, reality, and the elusive quality of meaning - all that plus a mind-bending Cheap Trick cover.

Largely self-recorded in the late '90s (minus some sessions with Ethan Johns), Meaningless spent years on the shelf of a major label uncertain what to make of its textured glory, before Brion negotiated an extremely limited release in 2001. More than two decades later, its emotional core remains undiminished by years spent in the major label wringer, both before and after its creation. Like his work with artists including Aimee Mann, Fiona Apple, and Elliott Smith, Brion's songs offer depth and resonance, and like his soundtrack work on films like Magnolia, Punch Drunk Love, I Heart Huckabees, and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, its scope is widescreen.

Remastered and artist approved, Meaningless can finally be heard the way Brion intended.

After many years as a sideman for other people's projects - including Aimee Mann, the eels, Fiona Apple, Elliott Smith, Jellyfish, and the Wallflowers, among dozens more - multi-instrumentalist, producer, and general 'it man' Jon Brion stepped behind the microphone for his debut solo album in late 2000. Much-anticipated by diehard fans of guitar-based pop music, and especially the rabid cult following of the fractured early-'90s pop outfit Jellyfish, Meaningless delivers... a lovely, catchy, and personal pop album on par with (and in many cases, superior to) the albums and artists that he has worked with in the past.