Be Careful What You Wish For

Whisper it quietly, but Jasmine Minks frontman Jim Shepherd has created his masterpiece with Be Careful What You Wish For, his new album with The Pillars of Creation on the Precious Recordings of London label. Let’s not call them a ‘supergroup’ – though the ensemble does indeed feature former stalwarts of Alan McGee’s iconic Creation label, headed by The Loft’s Dave Morgan, on drums and synths, and doing the honours on production and mixing). In fact, although this is the first album credited to The Pillars of Creation, it’s really the band’s second after The Circle, released in 2022 (on Spinout Nuggets) and credited as a Shepherd solo effort. However, The Circle featured most core members, who also played on live shows to accompany its release. Now they’re back together for an epic record that represents a radical departure. And one thing’s for sure: the new album is not a record beholden to a typically C86 or early Creation sound.

Layers of sound, beautifully crafted arrangements, strings, spoken word and an 18-minute mini rock opera that takes up almost a whole side. “Ooh, sounds a bit prog!” Yeah yeah, what-evs! “Be Careful What You Wish For was written in a brief period when I took a month off work, because my son was very ill,” says Shepherd. “I would just sit with him, and my wife Gemma suggested that I write songs while I was sitting around for hours, so out of that came 14 new songs, including an 18-minute suite of songs, based on (and named after) Maurice Maeterlinck’s Bluebird, a play about learning to accept reality. “The songs poured out of me, whether I was being inspired by listening to Prince or watching the news about refugees in boats or reading novels about faraway lands … I wanted to convey optimism but darkness creeps in too. I wouldn’t change a note: everything the guys contributed is perfect.”