The Mother Stone is the debut studio album by American actor and musician Caleb Landry Jones. It was released through the Brooklyn-based Sacred Bones Records on May 1, 2020. The album was recorded in Los Angeles and was mainly written by Jones while he was working on the films The Outpost and The Kindness of Strangers. It received generally positive reviews, with praise for its innovating sound, but some criticism directed at its length and lack of narrative coherence.
Background and artwork
The album was recorded in Los Angeles and Jones worked on the album while he was working on two films. He wrote the instrumental track "Flag Day" when he was in Bulgaria working on the movie The Outpost and he wrote substantial parts of the album when he was stationed in Toronto making The Kindness of Strangers. When he finished working on the movie, he wrote "a few more songs" in New York. Jones has stated that the money he made from being a part of the movie The Outpost funded the album and made it possible to record and release. Jim Jarmusch was the one that recommended Jones to Sacred Bones Records and eventually producer Nic Jodain teamed up with Jones and helped out with the album's production. Jones wrote all of the songs on the album and also played drums, keyboards and rhythm guitar on all tracks. His longtime friend Robert Hudson, who Jones had a band together with called "Robert Jones", played bass on the entirety of the record.
The artwork for the record features Jones in a Marie Antoinette–era wig with a white powdered face and red lips, while holding a cigarette in his hand. There isn't any specific meaning behind the choice of the artwork, according to Vulture. Jones's girlfriend Katya Zvereva had a warehouse which the couple could use and they just "made some things they thought looked cool."
Critical reception
The Mother Stone received generally positive reviews from music critics. On the review aggregate website Metacritic, The Mother Stone received a score of 63, based on eight reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews." Album of the Year assessed the critical consensus as a 73 out of 100, based on nine reviews.
AllMusic critic Timothy Monger wrote that Jones, on the album, "unleashed what sounds like a lifetime's worth of ideas and pent-up weirdness, constructing a wild suite of interconnected songs, replete with lurching orchestral sections and harsh fuzzy textures and sung in a variety of different voices and timbres like a character actor gone off the rails." Monger also declared the album unpredictable and praised the production, while at the same time stating that the album lacks memorable songs. Caroline Edwards of Clash gave the album a positive review, writing that it's "unlike anything else out in music right now. It's risky and at times, clumsy, but overall, effective. The record is fun and isn't afraid to be weird - it's evident Jones was passionate about the project and that it wasn't just a second thought. While it won't be played on Radio 1 anytime soon, listening to the album is artistic at its core, and more so, a cathartic and worthwhile experience." Exclaim!s reviewer Matt Yuyitung opined that "The Mother Stone is impressive in the size and scope of its ambition, but that size overwhelms any kind of narrative coherence." He continued by stating that the album is "a disorienting, manic, ambitious psychedelic statement filled with constant twists and turns, and this is both its biggest strength and most notable weakness."