There’s a certain sort of beauty that only manifests out of the static, when some melancholy dreamer sets his fragile tone against a wistful piano figure. Vancouver singer-songwriter Tobias Jesso Jr. has that magic in abundant supply.
Vancouver presents singer-songwriter Tobias Jesso Jr. We love you man! Simple and sweet love songs that are full of emotion and junk.
It’s as if he sighs his heartrending nostalgia into existence after poring over old love letters and family scrapbooks, encasing each outpouring of sentiment in wobbly lo-fi recordings that render them well-worn keepsakes from the start. True Love — the gentle yet increasingly intense solo piano ballad he released into the world, like a baby bird nursed from a hatchling and set free — introduces him as a soft-rock Harry Nilsson disciple of the highest order.
This track is a slice of pure emotion and simplicity. It’s a song which instantly hits home. A recurring, lo-fi sounding vocal refrain manages to derive a surging sense of devotion to Jesso’s topic throughout the piece whilst the clarity of the keys breathes life and vigour into a single track. There seems to be two distinct tones to the lyrical content of True Love: love and everything else.
As the song progresses, the message become apparent as it faces a central theme; Jesso’s lost heart. What stands out about True Love is how natural it feels. More than sounds, this is an integration of verbs and actions, as Jesso pummels, rages, wails and asserts, asking hard questions of him. What if he could harness his power to convey immediate anger instead of patient catharsis, as a soundtrack for lifting weights instead of zoning out?
His vocals bear an extra-terrestrial shimmer, but why can’t he play the avenging archangel rather than a friendly ghost? After evoking Canada’s gorgeous, vast maritime terrain, why not reflect the endless winters and the frightening suicide rate?
This track can only be listened to intensely, an element that works as effectively as a spiritual experience, the essence of his overwhelming, widescreen grandeur conveyed with the immediacy of a 6-minute track.
There has been no word of an album yet.
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