Jenifer Jackson

MARCH 2007 : TRIFECTAgram : Choice pick: Jenifer Jackson – THE OUTSKIRTS OF A GIANT TOWNHer best album, the first instant classic to be released this year. Over the course of her previous six albums, Jackson has carved out a niche that is uniquely her own, even though she wears her influences on her sleeve (Bacharach, the Beatles, and Brazilian jazz/pop most notably). There’s an impressive clarity of vision that pervades her music –a courageous one. It’s what Camus meant by “lucidite” – it’s evident from the first song on this album that this is someone who is firing on all cylinders, every synapse wide awake and often painfully aware of what’s going on. Her melancholy, intricate, jazz-inflected psychedelia doesn’t shy away from despair or loneliness. But there’s always a light at the end of the tunnel: as strange as it may seem at first listen, this is ultimately a hopeful, optimistic album. Recorded live in the studio in order to evince as much interplay between musicians as possible, it’s a multistylistic tour de force, opening with Don’t Fade, old school 60s- 70s soul with fluttery organ fills and a soaring vocal. Like Sandy Denny, Jackson’s formidable prowess as a singer may not be physical – she’s not a big belter – but she packs an emotional wallop.The album’s next cut Suddenly Unexpectedly, set to a fast shuffle beat with a bossa melody and layers of keys is pure psychedelic tropicalia. The following track, Saturday, is something of an epic, the most powerful song she’s ever recorded. It starts out somewhat Beatlesque, like a George song from the White Album. She pedals a chord through the verse, then all of a sudden the minor-key chorus descends: “It doesn’t matter anyway – I’ll keep it in my memory, that lovely Saturday” Then the second verse kicks in, and everything picks up a notch. Jackson is also a painter, and as the images unwind, this tersely imagistic portrait of a young woman absolutely and heartbreakingly alone is absolutely, heartbreakingly beautiful.After that, we get I Want to Start Something, more old-school soul psychedelia, accordionist Sonny Barbato playing some delicious licks off Jackson’s equally tasty rhythm guitar. Then her voice takes flight again at the end of the verse: “I’d like to find a place that feels like home…been so many places I don’t know why I can’t find it.”The next cut Dreamland begins with a strangely captivating, tinkly piano intro into a wash of cymbals, then Jackson’s guitar kicks in all by itself. It’s Nashville gothic with all kinds of eerie, echoey effects from lead player Oren Bloedow’s guitar, scarier than the fast, bluegrass-inflected version she used to play live, and a gorgeously sad lyric: “The way you loved me was a sin/I played a game I couldn’t win/But still I tried to enter in/To the outer edge of Dreamland.”Other standout tracks on the cd include the title track, gentle pastoral raga rock evocative of Meddle-era Pink Floyd, with an amazing piano break by Barbato; Anywhere I Would Journey, with its slow descending progression and watery lead guitar; The Change, an epic old-school soul song that Isaac Hayes would be proud to have written; and For You, which with its tricky time changes and 60s garage rock feel wouldn’t be out of place on a Love Camp 7 record.This album is generously multi-purpose: it’s a hell of a headphone album, it would make a great bedroom record, but it’s also a good thing to give to anyone you know who’s going off the deep end. Jackson’s gentle, soft voice and her wise, knowing lyrics offer a kind of solace that’s completely absent in indie rock, and the inspiring interplay of the killer band behind her is mesmerizing. She deserves props for having the guts to reach down into the abyss to come up with some of the songs on this album, while never losing sight of the subtle, frequently surreal wit that so many of them are imbued with. It’s only March, but I think we’ve found the best album of 2007 and this is it. Cds are available at cdbaby.com, in better record stores and at shows, peep the website........................... http://www.jeniferjackson.com............................... .................... ....................................................... PURCHASE any of JJ's albums (Love Lane, Slowly Bright, Birds, So High, Passaporto, THE OUTSKIRTS OF A GIANT TOWN) by writing her here or at www.cdbaby.com