Review Summary: Jacob Golden peaks his head out above a sea of solo artists and realizes he's got what it takes.
I’ll be honest, I’m a bit nervous about this review. I feel like this artist deserves so much and I hope I can do some justice.
Jacob Golden is not really a new comer to the music industry. His band,
Birthday, signed to Rough Trade and went to England only to break up and return to California in the late 1990’s. He recorded his first solo record, Hallelujah World, about which he says:
“Well, I feel my first album is a little bit misunderstood. To be honest I think it’s a bit of a confused record but I do still really believe in a lot of those songs.” (webcutsmusic.com)
It wasn’t until 2007 that Jacob Golden produced a second album,
Revenge Songs.
If I were to boil down
Revenge Songs into one word I would have to chose ‘intimate’. From the first minute of “Out Come the Wolves”, where we are introduced to Golden’s control and restraint, to “Zero Integrity”, where he sorrowfully lays it all on the table, we feel like Golden is in the room and we can gaze into his eyes. “On a Saturday” was, in fact, recorded in his room and many of the other songs were recorded in and around Portland, Oregon. You can hear sirens in the background of “Zero Integrity”.
Possibly the most enduring thing about the album is the vocals. Some might compare his vocal styling to Jeff Buckley and you could certainly see the appropriation of Buckley in “Love You”. The song draws lots of parallels with “Lilac Wine” from Grace but I’d go as far as saying Golden expands on it. While “Lilac Wine” is arguably one of the weaker tracks on Grace, I would say that Golden takes the freeform blues style and breaths such emotion into it that it exceeds “Wine” and becomes one of the strongest tracks on
Revenge Songs. While Golden’s range isn’t as large as the late Buckley his expression through vocal variety and rhythm are almost equally as impressive. You can almost see his eyes glazing over as he coos lines like:
I tried to write the perfect song
to let you know that I was wrong
and fix the bloody hole in the roof
where the hammer fell…
my shoes they fall in foreign places
looking for my other in a sea of faces
A lot of solo artists suffer from a lack of powerful dynamics in their music.
Revenge Songs solves this issue beautifully and simply, overdubbing. Not an overly innovative solution but the execution of the overdubbing is so incredible you can hardly notice it but you certainly feel the effect. The subtle harmonizing in “Shoulders” makes the chorus feel as if it’s lifting you up but it doesn’t subtract from the main vocal part. “Out Comes the Wolves” and “Hold Your Hair Back” come to hair raising climaxes through the use of multiple vocal harmonies intertwining amongst the upbeat acoustic strumming. I tried and failed to find a situation where Golden uses this technique and it becomes cheese or ineffective.
On a closer listen the lyrics begin to flesh themselves out, sowing a story of lost fame, love, and personal reflection. Golden hints at his history in songs like “Shine a Light”
The record company pushed for a hard hard sell but I couldn’t check out of the roach motel
He jabs at old wounds and old dreams in “Shoulders”
At twenty five I bought a sampler when my
band broke up
I thought I lost my spark
that old reaper left it’s mark
Golden creates delicious rhythms out of his words. He paints vivid pictures with his metaphors and cuts himself open for all to see with his brutal honesty. Listening to the chorus of “Out Come the Wolves” is like watching clay flow through a potter’s hands as it spins on the wheel.
Out come the wolves
the hunting of our great american idols
and the ants will march until their queen
has come, god damn, downtown James Brown
what’s taken you so long, you’re kids
are starving
“Pretend” and “Love You” are well placed on the album. They both have a distinctly different sound from the rest of the album. The tones used in these two sound fresh and saves the album from becoming one of “those” solo artists that falls too deeply in love with a single key or tone and becomes stuck. As a whole it is fairly diverse, there are a lot of downtrodden, gut wrenching songs, but they are broken up by songs like “On A Saturday” and “Church Of New Song” which give you enough of a pick-me-up to keep going. Golden certainly realizes he’s constructing an album and not just a bunch of singles thrown on a disc.
Jacob Golden takes a step up to eventually joining ranks with great artists like Sam Beam, Jeff Buckley, Jason Vernon and Elliott Smith. I realize that’s a bold statement but I feel very strongly that his music is approaching that level. With that said, you really need to check this out.
