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a r t i s t :: Tobias Jesso Jr.
t i t l e :: Goon
d a t e :: 2015-00-00
l a b e l :: True Panther Sounds
g e n r e :: Indie
s o u r c e :: CD
b i t r a t e :: 733 kbps avg
e n c o d e r :: FLAC 1.2.1 -8 -V
t r a c k s :: 12
p l a y t i m e :: 46:33
s i z e :: 244.8MB
tracklist
1 Can't Stop Thinking About You 3:53
2 How Could You Babe 3:52
3 Without You 5:09
4 Can We Still Be Friends? 3:23
5 The Wait 2:14
6 Hollywood 6:08
7 For You 3:08
8 Crocodile Tears 2:22
9 Bad Words 4:28
10 Just A Dream 4:45
11 Leaving Los Angeles 4:24
12 Tell The Truth 2:47
releasenotes
At some point it became clear that one of the themes for the first quarter
of
2015 would be The Return of the Male Piano Balladeer. Upcoming records from
Father John Misty, Matthew E. White, and new kid/not-kid Tobias Jesso Jr.
(heÆs 29) would all center on an archetype now associated mostly with the
1970s: the weary dude, wise beyond his years, spinning tales of love and loss
from his piano bench before moving over to a barstool. ItÆs an image that took
hold during the '60s hangover, when baby boomers traded youthful dreams and
started becoming their parents, a little less certain with each new season
that they were, in fact, still crazy after all these years. This highly
personal, smaller-scale music was less about The World and more about the
geography of a wounded heart. Jesso, Misty and White, in their own ways, are
all drawn to a similar directness, a love of the well-written song composed
and performed solo.
Hearing Tobias Jesso Jr.Æs album, Goon, it turns out he has less in common
with his peers than we thought. Father John MistyÆs J. Tillman is by far the
most literate and complicated of the three songwriters, using a fictional
persona to plumb the depths of his own desires and self-loathing. Matthew E.
White is more producer and arranger than singer-songwriter, someone who lets
the horn arrangements and mic placement do the talking. And Tobias Jesso Jr.
is ultimately more of a wide-eyed innocent, a songwriter with a naturally
expressive voice who has a McCartney-like propensity for melody and an innate
drive toward simplicity.
In the late '60s and early '70s, L.A. singer-songwriters like Randy Newman,
Harry Nilsson, and Tom Waits got their start by writing songs for others,
playing small clubs on Sunset, and skulking around record label offices. Jesso
did try writing for others, but his rise could only happen on the Internet:
Some songs posted to YouTube, an exchange with an admired producer (in the
case of Jesso, Girls' JR White), a debut record on a hip label, and a "The
Tonight Show" appearance before the LP even comes out. This isnÆt just luck,
of courseùJesso already had some connections from his time living and working
in music in Los Angeles and a few famous friends, and his little label is part
of the indie juggernaut Beggars Group. But if his quick ascent owes a lot to
living in a networked world, his music sounds as natural as breathing. Jesso
has a knack for writing songs that you feel like youÆve heard before, even if
you canÆt quite pin down a precise antecedent. Which is another way of saying
he writes songs that sound "classic" in the best sense of the word.
The highlights here sound like songs that could be covered and interpreted any
number of ways by other vocalists, with a rock-solid melodic and harmonic
foundation. "How Could You Babe" is among them, moving from slow, halting
verses that build tension until the glorious release of the chorus. On the
last refrain, Jesso pushes his voice in its upper register to the point where
it cracks, a clever suggestion of desperation that speaks to his intuitive
sense of phrasing. "The Wait" is a two-minute acoustic pop confection
featuring Jesso on guitar, a weightless gem that floats by like a freshly
blown dandelion seed. A pair of songs, "Hollywood" and "Leaving LA", hint at
JessoÆs background as a journeyman musician in Los Angeles, but the main idea
behind virtually every song is the precariousness of love and affection.
Fans of those YouTube demos had to wonder how JessoÆs intimate music might
hold up to studio glare, but JessoÆs producers (White handled eight songs, Pat
Carney of Black Keys two, and Ariel Rechtshaid one) treat his music with a
simplicity that suggests utter confidence in the material. The songwriterÆs
voice, piano chords, and plucked acoustic are the focus, and bits of light
drumming and the odd back-up vocal are often the only augmentation. The
approach leads to songs that feel unusually whole. You couldn't imagine taking
anything away from these songs, and it's equally hard to imagine adding
anything. "Leaving LA" is a masterpiece of sonic understatement, moving
between solo piano and a blissful interlude of voices and what sounds like
harpsichord. "Bad Words" finds JessoÆs voice pinched and distant next to a
Fender Rhodes and subtle drumming. His vocal line and piano move in unison on
"For You" as a violin saws away in the background; it all bleeds together
until it feels like a single, intricately textured sound.
If Jesso seems to have a Burt Bacharach-like command of how verses, choruses,
and bridges can add up to more than the sum of their parts, heÆs got a ways to
go before giving Hal David a run for his money with the pen. The words are
here to serve the music, to fit the rhythm and cadence of the tune rather than
the other way around. In a couple of places ("Crocodile Tears" and "Can We
Still Be Friends", which sounds disconcertingly like the theme song from
"Cheers") that can lead to rhyme schemes so predictable in their girl/world
obviousness as to become a distraction. But these moments are few, and Jesso
overcomes them as McCartney didùwith the sweetness of his voice. "ThereÆs a
thing called hate/ And a thing called love, too/ Like the love I have for your
Mom/ And for you" reads awkwardly on the page, but JessoÆs smooth musical
diction makes it sound almost wise. His voice couldnÆt be any more suited to
this kind of music if it was created in a lab, but beyond just hitting the
notes he also has a great feel for inflection, how to squeeze the most out of
every syllable and transition.
With its clear debt to a specific era, Goon has a meta quality, an album of
music that illustrates the power of music. While the songs are almost all
about heartbreak, they could be more likely to have you ruminating about the
role music plays in heartbreak instead of the emotional pain itself, but this
distancing effect, in which the songs unfold so patiently, doesnÆt diminish
the recordÆs pleasures. Of the trio of 2015 songwriters mentioned above, Jesso
sounds the most like Nilsson, in terms of the grain of his voice and his
ability to sound wounded while also floating just above his travails, but his
music is very different in spirit; JessoÆs approach is to state things
plainly, dress them up in a gorgeous tune, and sit down and deliver it in the
most spare and economical manner possible. Goon isnÆt an album of layers; what
you hear is what you get, which in this case turns out to be something
special.
www.tobiasjessojr.com
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Tobias_Jesso_Jr.-Goon-(TRUE099-2)-CD-FLAC-2015-k4