Review Summary: How long can we hold on to the ones we lost?
“Loss is a filter that goes through your whole life, it's not about not moving on. It changes you. It changes your relationships, it changes how you see yourself, the way you see your work. I really wanted to be in all that as I made this album."
I akin
Gone Now to Mark Everett’s 1998 masterpiece
Electro-Shock Blues. Not so much sonically, though both Everett and Antonoff do indulge themselves with chamber-esque instrumentals, but more so for their thematic overlaps and contrasts. Both records deal heavily with family death and the failure to cope with losing people close to you, though it's the resolutions between Antonoff and Everett’s tales of woe that set them apart. While Everett found resolve in his hour of solemn reflection as the last living member of his family, Antonoff continues to struggle even with the sobering glimpses that he was ready to move on with his 2014 debut
Strange Desire.
Gone Now boasts a complicated construction of continuously referenced thematics, leitmotifs and callbacks to previous material, and a heavily emotional and overarching tone that may not be so apparent with the deceptively uplifting lead single “Don’t Take the Money”. These elements lend themselves to making
Gone Now thoroughly enjoyable, thought provoking, and emotionally resonating through its upbeat pop jams to the off-kilter, experimental tunes of the record’s back half. Though it’s not just thematics and lyrical content that cements
Gone Now as an important album. With this record Jack Antonoff blossoms as a songwriter by perfecting his pop composition. His 80s throwback pop aesthetic has been fined-tuned and strays away from being easily comparable to era-specific aesthetics or musicians and takes on its own unique image of chamber-laced synthpop, while his general lyricism has matured and he finds plenty of ways to make his material an engaging and rewarding experience.
Antonoff stuffs
Gone Now with as much narrative grace as a record can possibly hold. “Dream of Mickey Mantle” is a solemn overture that introduces many of the record’s running themes and ideas through a slow-building synth lead that rides the echoes of repetitive phrases from the song’s chorus buried low in the mix. The additional inclusion of backing vocals and samples lead into an amazing pay off at the song’s dramatic bridge, where each of these elements ring at once in an explosive, noisy flurry of desperate yelling and quick drum fills. From there,
Gone Now continues to dazzle with “Goodmorning”, which continues the trend of sample heavy composition while a repetitive piano lead that builds into a catchy call/response chorus. On this track Antonoff laments on the closeness you have with people who have passed away, introducing a few of the record’s key themes including references to his debut record, Wild Heart, along with the album’s running themes of “rolling thunder” and home.
There is a lot going on with Gone Now, so much that pages could be written connecting the dots between songs, albums, and their meanings. Though you don’t need to do your homework or know its backstory to enjoy this record. All the thematics and references are not a distraction from the fun and smartly written pop compositions, and they do not downplay the emotional moments of each track. “Hate That You Know Me” and “Don’t Take the Money” are the record’s two notable “jams”. The first track rides on a simplistic, but effective flat beat lead that gradually introduces a backing guitar lead, a glass drum fill, and guest vocals from Carly Rae Jepsen. “Don’t Take the Money” packs more meat with a warm, anthemic flair that boasts an explosive chorus that makes singing along a requirement for how catchy it's bouncy synths and drum beats are. There are also “I Miss Those Days” and “Everybody Lost Somebody” which are somber chamber pop tracks that pack on church bells, saxophones, and harpsichords to create some incredibly infectious hooks that will have you singing along.
From there, the record begins delving into the more experimental cuts of the record like the “I’m Ready to Move On/Mickey Mantle Reprise”, which introduces a weird auto tune vocal style on top of very bouncy, folksy guitar beat and an assortment of random skittery sound effects. A couple ballads also spring up, such as “Nothing is U” and “Goodbye”, which are vocal effect heavy piano crooners. Here is where critics against the record begin to lose interest. However, these more experimental tracks carry their own weight and continue the songwriting and thematic trends of the first half of the record. So the stylistic change-up is consistent with the rest of the album and the more quiet moments of these tracks allow for some of the more sadder moments of the record to seep in.
Gone Now is an album that offers a lot in its thematic department if one cares to look. The possibilities of engagement with it are endless and it goes to show how such an emotional and memorable story can fit comfortably on a pop record. Both lyrically and instrumentally, Jack Antonoff breathes so much life and emotion into his songwriting that you can’t help but sit and dissect every second of this record to find the meaning behind it. It is a record that is not without its flaws, though it has enough tracks to get hooked on for weeks to come and is emotionally heavy enough to raise this album above its flaws. Giving us an emotional magnum opus that says that maybe its OK to hold on just a little bit longer.
