- Release Info -------------------------------------------------------------- -
Artist: Jenny Owen Youngs
Album: Transmitter Failure
Label: Nettwerk
Playtime: 47:36 min
Genre: Indie
URL: http://www.myspace.com/jennyowenyoungs
Rip date: 2009-04-29
Street date: 2009-05-26
Size: 64.32 MB
Type: Advance
Quality: 174 kbps / 4410kHz / Joint Stereo
- Release Notes ------------------------------------------------------------- -
When is the last time you picked up a brand new album and listened to it from
start to finish (and back to the start again), the way it was intended to be
heard? Today, youÆll want to do it again, with Jenny Owen Youngs' Transmitter
Failure due May 26.
Following fresh in the tracks of her 2007 debut Batten the Hatches (which
earned Youngs a record deal with Nettwerk and a song on the popular TV series
Weeds, among other highlights), Transmitter Failure begins with a knowing nod
to the past û in the ukulele, double bass and jaunty percussion of the
40-second intro, "First Person" û before quickly launching ahead into the
album's next track, "Led to the Sea," a powerful rock/pop single aimed in a
brand new direction. Jenny pulls off the transition without missing a beat.
One listen will have you believing this is the kind of music she's been
making all along. As Youngs explains, "The first track is kind of meant as a
fakeout. At the same time, it's an excerpt from 'Last Person,' which comes
much later in the record. So, backwards and forwards..." It's a theme that
creeps up more than occasionally on the album.
For Transmitter Failure, Jenny calls on her long-time producer friend Dan
Romer (Batten the Hatches, Ingrid Michaelson, The Woes) to create a lush
aural landscape populated by gut-thumping bass lines, electric guitars, sunny
keys, booming horns, digital drum tracks and even flute, glockenspiel and a
full string section at times (borrowed straight from the pit of award-winning
Broadway musical Spring Awakening). Deeply enmeshed in a scene of gifted
young indie musicians and songwriters, Jenny and Dan looked to fellow
Brooklyners Chris Kuffner (Regina Spektor, Ingrid Michaelson, Jim Bianco),
Bess Rogers (The Age of Rockets, The Robot Explosion), Meredith Godreau
(Gregory and the Hawk), Ben Kalb (New Pornographers, Regina Spektor, Ingrid
Michaelson), Saul Simon-MacWilliams (Chris Garneau, The Age of Rockets) and
Adam Christgau (Tobias Froberg, The Woes) to collectively contribute bass,
guitars, drums, vocals and strings on multiple tracks. "I also wrote with
other people for this record," Youngs explains, "Justin Pierre (Motion City
Soundtrack) wrote part of the music for 'Secrets.' I worked with Bess Rogers
on a couple songs and also called in Osei Essed (The Woes) for a song."
Where Batten the Hatches plays like a beautifully distilled, 40-minute diary
entry backed by singular drum tracks, acoustic guitars, banjo, cello and
spare digital elements, Transmitter Failure picks up with thicker
arrangements and more electric production than fans might be used to, but
deliciously malleable vocals, unique instrumentation, and the songwriter's
trademark caustic wit remain.
ôHere is a Heartö relays aching turns-of-phrase with pretty and sweet vocals
over playful keys. ôHere is a heart,ö she sings, ôI made it for you, so take
ità you know I live to fill you up / blood of my blood, dripping with love /
I bring you the thing you need most / silent between supplies and machines /
hang in the corners like a ghost / you know I live to be seen through."
The gritty ôClean Break,ö paints a wicked metaphor with reverberating guitars
and a touch of haunting vaudeville, mixed with lingering bass and brushed
snare. More than just a break-up song, Youngs says, ôitÆs actually a get away
from me, you make me sick and I make myself sickö song.
Jenny clearly delights in never letting the listener tune out, as
slow-and-sweet ballads are immediately followed by infectious rock/pop gems.
ôNo More Wordsö û a nearly seven-minute-long shoegaze odyssey û picks up
tempo partway through and fades out with an extended keyboard solo, untilà
boom! We're hit with the racing, country-fried percussion of ôLast Person,ö
which comes in at track 10 and reminds us how we got to this point, with its
winking reference to the first song.
ôNighty-Nightö follows effortlessly, as if bringing the evening to a close
and carrying with it the promise of a new day. It features YoungsÆ lilting
doo-wop croon coupled with slow, wailing strings and a waltzing rhythm,
reminiscent of a page from Richard Hawley's songbook.
As the title implies, Transmitter Failure hums with the notion of
contradiction. Messages of missed/mixed communications are conveyed with a
referential look at the past and a fixed eye on the future. Nearly the last
song on the album, the title track begins with a sweeping crescendo of
strings and drums amid a crash of cymbals, which immediately give way to a
few timid, lone tones on a keyboard, followed by Jenny's hushed voice,
singing, "There's a lot of words in the English language, but I'm just
getting started, baby / we could be here all night." Finally, the sentiment
we've been sensing all along is put into words. Jenny explains of the song,
"As we were forming the record, it started to become very apparent to me that
the thickest thread running through the songs and holding them together was
the theme of communication û its success, its complete and total breakdown,
and the ways in which it affects relationships. So once I opened my eyes and
saw that, using æTransmitter FailureÆ as a title track made a lot of sense to
me." Youngs goes on to say, "This used to be a tiny, pretty, love-y song. Now
it is a shape-shifting beast... It was intended as sweet, but most people who
hear it assume, I think, that itÆs about a relationship ending. ItÆs actually
about a relationship rising from ashes."
There couldn't be a more appropriate note to end (or begin) on than the
album's final track, "Start + Stop." With Jenny's words carried by a playful
ukulele and her voice alone, it's as if we're back at the bar stool from
"Last Person" ("I know you're looking for a stop + start / and I could give
you what you want, oh yeah / bring yourself a little closer, baby," she
coaxes), while simultaneously setting the stage for "First Person" to start
things up again. In the final lines of the song, Youngs unexpectedly switches
tone and goes from pleading to promising, with an earnestness and
vulnerability in her voice that suggests a weight of her message heavier than
the words alone -- "Give me the smallest part of you / I need to know right
now / If you're going / I want to go there too / I want to leave with you / I
want to go there too / I just want to be with you." We can't help but take
her hand and take that chance all over again.
- Track List ---------------------------------------------------------------- -
01. First Person ( 0:40)
02. Led To The Sea ( 3:26)
03. Dissolve ( 3:49)
04. Here Is A Heart ( 4:23)
05. Clean Break ( 3:02)
06. If I Didn't Know ( 4:09)
07. What Beats Within ( 3:55)
08. Secrets ( 3:06)
09. No More Words ( 6:29)
10. Last Person ( 3:15)
11. Nighty Night ( 3:37)
12. Transmitter Failure ( 4:46)
13. Start + Stop ( 2:59)
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