Press
July 1st, 2009
AWARDS
2010 Denver Post Top 20 Underground Bands
2010 Westword Best Indie Folk/Acoustic Artist
2009 Westword Nominated Best Pop Artist
2009 Denver Music Scene Top 10 Songwriters
2009 Lyons Folks Festival Finalist
2008 Telluride Troubadour Finalist
2008 Westword Nominated Best Singer/Songwriter
2007 Lyons Folks Festival Finalist
2007 Mover and Shaker / Best Local Release -- Westword
2007 Best Local Release -- The Denver Post
2006 Most Intriguing Discs - The Onion
2006 Westword Nominated Best Singer/Songwriter
-- Various
August 15th, 2010
Common's vocal approach and powerful guitar work seems designed to fill an amphitheater, but it works just as well in an outdoor, open-air venue. The frontman's philosophical lyrics and novel chord structures find their real power in the work of the ensemble, a group that features bright Moog work, refined cello and clarinet lines and a compelling female vocal complement in the form of backup singer Jess De Nicola.
Indeed, the sound feels downright epic at times.
-- Westword / A.H. Goldstein
March 9th, 2010
We make it our business at Remixed to seek out the best musicians you've never heard of; so we become fans of new artists faster than we can write about them. But when a disc goes from the "So, Who's This Guy?" pile to the coveted "Our All-Time Favorite Albums Ever" Display Case With The Cool Little Inset Ikea Lighting Fixture, before the end of the third track, we've leapt right past our mission statement and landed squarely on proof-of-concept.
In a matter of weeks, Beautiful Empty has dropped out of the sky and landed on our short list of favorite albums ever, with nary a complaint from new neighbors Joni Mitchell's Blue and Paul Simon's Graceland. We're almost afraid to ask ourselves what you and the Flashes of Light will do next.
-- Remixed Magazine
February 13th, 2010
It is truly one of the most endearing and magnificent albums I’ve ever had in my collection. The lyrics are those of the poet–laureate, insightful, and glaringly crisp in their focus. The music is the equal to anything ever done by any great pop music arranger.
Beautiful Empty is full of mystery, intrigue, loneliness, pain, and searching --- and there’s no direct answers here…there’s no salvation, no redemption - although there is hope, optimism. All put together we get one of the most sophisticated and intelligent adult pop records of the past several decades
-- Chris K. / The Colorado Sound
January 18th, 2010
"John Common & Blinding Flashes of Light emerged through smoke dressed to kill in black and red and goggles. From the second they took the stage until the second they left it, they played with the sort of blind joy that will make you believe in whatever they're doing. DeNicola's voice is an arrow, unmistakable and full of personality. Common's voice, by contrast, is steady and broad. It swallows you. His band, composed of his choice of local talent, is of unmistakable high caliber, each capable of holding a song by himself. But this is John Common's music -- it's pure passion and happiness."
-- Westword
January 12th, 2010
After nearly quitting music, John Common made the best record of his life with his new band, Blinding Flashes of Light
...While recording, Common asked each member to create intensity with emotion rather than volume and to leave space for one another in the arrangements. "We wanted it to feel, as much as possible, like a real band of human beings playing in a wooden room," he explains. "We wanted it to sound like real people conversing with one another, musically, like having a conversation."
They succeeded, because the first thing you notice about Beautiful Empty is its spaciousness: The voices of Common and DeNicola blend together seamlessly and never strain to compete with one other, much less with the other instruments. On the song "Same Scar," for example, moaning cello lines harmonize gracefully with an accordion as it inhales and exhales gently, weaving an impressively elegant backdrop.
-- Dave Herrera / Westword
January 6th, 2010
JOHN COMMON & BLINDING FLASHES OF LIGHT | BEAUTIFUL EMPTY
"The new songs are as heartbreaking as they are clever. And the music is tender, ornate and vibrant, sparkling with affecting melodies sung with elegance and grace..."
-- Westword
April 11th, 2010
In local music and beyond, it just doesn’t get better than this. Yes, John Common, man who pushes bounds of Indie genre to snapping is not local, although he’s loved locally by fellow artists, fans and critics, alike. ... Beautiful Empty is so rich it could be Experimental Classical were it not so jazzy and funk-tastic and, at its heart, just really fine Indie Rock.
-- Colorado Music Buzz
April 8th, 2010
My old buddy John Common finally just asked me straight out. "Do you like the album?"
Well, yeah. It's just not what I was expecting. Because I was expecting more of the same.
-- Pensacola News Journal / Troy Moon
February 1st, 2010
Empty beds. This was the first thing I noticed about Beautiful Empty when it came in the mail. The album art depicts beds: empty, slept in, sheets all askew. As the opening track "Can You Hear Me" began to roll out of my desktop speakers, dreamy sounds and words filled my ears. John Common begins by taking stock of the situation. “Woke up alone, where’d you go?” he asks. His bed is empty, it is a strange beauty. Beautiful… empty.
Before diving headlong into a full review of the debut album from John Common & Blinding Flashes of Light, a little background might be useful. John Common is one of those characters on the Denver music scene who appears restless. His previous projects are numerous and varied; from art and film exhibits to a kazoo orchestra, Common has always been dabbling in one thing or another. When he set to work creating Beautiful Empty, he decided to not just go alone, but instead gathered a top-notch band to see the vision through.
The result is a stunning collection of songs. Beautiful Empty is split into two parts, “Side A” and “Side B” (maybe someday it will be released on vinyl?), each with a unique flavor. “Good Heart” is a simple piano ballad from the first half of the record that displays a beautiful simplicity, while “In My Neighborhood” is a sunny number that takes full advantage of the unique sound of a Rhodes keyboard.
On the B-side there’s “Love Is A Shark.” I still don’t quite know what to think about this song. On one hand it is the kind of metaphor that makes me smile, but on the other hand it is one of the oddest comparisons I’ve ever heard.
“Thinking ‘bout God” closes the record out with a reflective song that ebbs and flows with piano, strings, and keyboards. It is the kind of song that I can imagine as a slow-dance that plays off into the night.
Beautiful Empty is available digitally on iTunes, physically at Twist & Shout, and on CDbaby.com (where $2 from each record sale will go to relief efforts in Haiti until February 9).
-- Tim Weilert / School of Mines
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