Monday 15 June 2015

Jess Klein [Bound To Love]

Now here's something worth shouting about, i love Singer / Songwriter albums, especially one that truly gets on the inner vibe of something, Jess Klein has this ability to spin nice little 'slices of life', i'm always on the lookout for new Artists, i search Ebay and Amazon constantly, there's tricks on certain websites, 'search for similar Artists', or 'search for similar albums', and then give each disc a sample / listen, in the old days you had to take a risk and buy an album to discover new music, now it's so much easier, Jess Klein is one of my successes, and yet this is still a new album for me, still getting to know her, i think i'll get her album 'City Garden' next.

Jess Klein is American, she's 40 this year, she has a back catalogue of roughly ten albums, this one came out in 2009, i bought it because it has one of the most marvellous front covers [by Karen Macmillan], with Klein standing in the doorway, overlooking her porch, there's the most incredible light in the whole picture, this is nearly impossible to photograph, either the thing ends up a complete silhouette, or the light from outside washes out the whole picture, to capture the wallpaper is a near miracle, and it's such an incredible pose too, i love everything about it, except that it's a digipak.

Well this is only the second time i've listened to this album, but already i'm loving it, the tracks i was impressed with were 1-7, 9 & 11-12, ok so that's virtually all of them, the best two tracks of all were 6 & 7, and i'd like to talk about each of these here,
6 Before I Go [3:47] - The first time i didn't rate this song, but it has this certain low warbling organ accompaniment which i love, a lovely strumming guitar into by Klein [0:00-0:20], there's a certain stammer in Klein's voice, the song is so strong, and the use of repetition substantiates so many things, she sounds like Lucinda Williams here, a happy and great to be alive song, best lyric 'i've been sleeping for some hours, just woke up and you were there'.
7 Fool [4:36] - The song which i guess has been my favourite, though maybe now it's upstaged by 'Before I Go', yes it's got quite a country twang to it, especially in the electric guitar, a song about the 'sorry fools' that put their faith in trying to win things by gambling money, by concludes with the singer becoming a 'fool' by gambling on a possible lover, Klein has a strong yet fragile voice, there's a similarity to Emmylou Harris, it's a gorgeous rambling song, her voice can nicely break at the best moments, for instance 'struck' [1:06], the chorus is strong, then afterwards in the second verse Slaid Cleaves comes in, i guess it's a duet, best lyric 'i placed my bets on the life i'd never seen'.