New York-based artist The Bones of J.R. Jones released “The Good Life” from Slow Lightning, his first studio album in more than 5 years that will be released on October 13 via Tone Tree Music. The new single arrives alongside a moving official video where actress Maggie McDowell does what we all dream of: ditch the chaos of your day job, light a cigarette and hit the open road in search of fireworks, open fields, amusement parks and just a moment of pure joy. 

About the new song, Jonathon Linaberry (best known by his stage name The Bones of J.R. Jones) explains:,“’The Good Life’ was definitely a product of me trying to break through and learn to enjoy the moment I am in. Even if that moment is hard. Even if it is frustrating. Even if it feels like treading water, which in my mind is a synonym for death. I suppose I wrote ‘The Good Life’ to help remind myself of that. That we can always find a way out.”

“I wanted this video to walk the line of joy and heaviness of life. I wanted it to feel real enough so that we could all relate to that moment where Maggie leaves it all behind (even though we all, always come back). I think that’s one of the beautifully sad things about what we do to ourselves as humans. We are gluttons for punishment. We torture ourselves because we don’t think there is any other way to move forward. The original concept had Maggie raising a little more hell. Fist fights. Stealing cigarettes. Breaking windows. But I think if we went down that path it would be tough to find the joy in what ultimately is a hopeful song,” he adds about the video. 

As the title suggests, the 12-track collection Slow Lightning is raw and visceral, pulsating with an understated electrical current that flows through his cinematic brand of roots noir. The songs grapple with doubt and desire in the face of nature and fate, and frequent collaborator Kiyoshi Matsuyama’s production is eerily hypnotic to match, with haunting synthesizers, vintage drum machines, and ghostly guitars. 

“I felt very lost at the time I was writing these songs,” Linaberry confesses. “It was a moment of deep crisis and anxiety, but I knew the only way out was through, which meant I just had to bring myself to the table every day and put in the work.”

Photo Courtesy: Chloe Horseman