Jerry's Pick: "Year of the Young"

“Year of the Young”-Smith & Thell

I first learned of this Swedish duo through “Forgive Me Friend,” a jangly, harmony-filled pop song that dented the charts almost two-years ago. This year, Maria Jane Smith and Victor Thell looked inward to pull-out a very personal, yet universal eulogy.

“I'm gonna say what you said, I'm gonna do what you did. I won't remember you died, I will remember you lived…"

According to a post on the band’s Facebook page, “Last year, we and those close to us lost several young friends and loved ones due to tragic circumstances. Our private lives were hit by one sadness after another.” The most tragic loss, I learned, was of Maria’s sister, Janna.

Last February in an interview with Swedish journalist Alexandra Lundbladh -- Maria lamented about 2019 being an incredibly tough year. “I have not grasped it yet, but music is a safe place and a place to process. I'm very grateful we have the band. She was in the audience at all gigs in Helsingborg, and this summer at the festival it was one of the last days that she managed to do something like that at all. It will be wonderful to play in Helsingborg again… but one person will be missing."

It’s always been known music can be amazingly therapeutic. The latest Smith & Thell single is an exemplary example of a song having the potential of providing calm and reassurance to those who are grieving the passing of someone within their heart’s orbit. Turning to songwriting, the band transformed their sorrow into a celebration of life.

“You said, ‘Don't you stand by my grave, No, don't you stand there and cry. I'm the trees, I'm the birds, I'm the soft stars that shine at night…’”

For the lyrics, the young couple found inspiration in a poem penned in 1932 by Ohio-native Mary Elizabeth Frye, a then 27-year old florist. “Do Not Stand at My Grave and Weep” has since become a global go-to for bereavements as its words are powerful yet placid.

Most notable to me was how Maria and Victor beautifully matched melancholy with mirthful when they laid their sober soliloquy over a sanguine score.

Because of the duo’s impeccable harmonies and carefully-layered instrumentation, I feel “Year of the Young” is poised to become Smith & Thell’s best-seller to date, and most likely because of the date.

2020 has indeed been a tumultuous year with its share of sorrow. Although unintentional -- considering over one-million human lives have been taken worldwide by COVID-19 -- this song will most likely take-on an additional, more encompassing meaning and will hopefully help a lot of families through similar hardships.

“This year we lost more than we can count, the ashes we laid in the ground. Oh, this was the year of the young. This year we look up towards the sun, and wonder where everyone's gone. Oh, this was the year of the young…”

Jerry's Pick: "Chocolate Samurai"

Chocolate Samurai-Fantastic Negrito

Sorry. It’s been a few months since my last post. (Damn you COVID-19!)

Although this is my first new positive music review in a while, that doesn’t mean there’s been a lack of awesome tuneage as of late. In fact, off the top of my self-manicured haircut, there’s absolute must-haves like “Hero” from Weezer, “Black Dog” by Arlo Parks, San Cisco’s “On the Line,” and almost anything from the new Hayley Williams album Petals for Armor.

Today I thought I’d offer up something I’ve been jamming to for a couple of months now. It could very well be the best CoronaVirus isolation song featuring a multi-dimensional groove which has the force to override these bad times with good vibes. It’s packed-full of positive energy, people!

This non-mainstream jam comes from Xavier Amin Dphrepaulezz (pronounced “dee-FREP-ah-lez"), an Oakland-based multi-instrumentalist with a colorful past.

Brief back story: Xavier grew-up in foster care, was a petty criminal, and survived a car accident which left him in a coma for three-weeks. Inspired by Prince’s Dirty Mind album, Xavier -- then a young adult -- pretended to be a student at UC Berkeley so he could sneak into music practice rooms to teach himself to play instruments. Righteous! Bonus points for the inertia, imagination and ingenuity.

Under the new identity of Fantastic Negrito, his last two albums earned “Best Contemporary Blues” Grammy awards (2017, 2019) and his latest collection of tracks (Have You Lost Your Mind Yet?, out this Summer) is well on its way for a third.

The standout track is “Chocolate Samurai,’ a powerful performance which touches on so many vibes from blues, rock and soul to funk, hip-hop, boogie and dance. The overall black roots musical groove, he said, was inspired by the 1973 chart-topping single “Higher Ground,” a song Stevie Wonder wrote before and recorded after his near-fatal car crash and coma.

As with many of his past compositions, “Chocolate Samurai” focuses on issues of race, class and other socioeconomic issues which falls in sync with the resurrected Black Lives Matter movement this year. Xavier explained to music journalist Joshua M. Miller, “I think it relates 1,000% because there's no other mental illness that destroys, decapitates and deconstructs communities as much as racism. It's perhaps the greatest mental illness of them all. I feel like on ‘Chocolate Samurai,’ I ask and I say, ‘The whole world is watching, get free tonight, my people, my teachers, my soldiers.’ It's like a rallying cry -- in my view that we seek freedom. Freedom and peace go hand in hand, like brothers and sisters, they need each other because you can't really have one without the other.”

Written before we became buried in a collective collage of crises, you could say its message was unconsciously prescient. “This record has a lot to do with honesty, and it’s hard to get honesty because we don’t like it, I think. We say we like it, but boy is that uncomfortable.”

Not only is “Chocolate Samurai” funky AF -- thanks to a badass rhythm section -- it’s fun AF too. Oh… and listen for some life advice sprinkled over the track’s jazzy second act (heard only on the full version).

Preach!

Jerry's Pick: "What I Do"

"What I Do"-Taylor Janzen

Hey! My ears found another one!

It’s a new release that takes me back to the Lilith Fair-era of the late-90s/early-00s when radio regularly broadcast the talents of Lisa Loeb, Sarah McLachlan, Paula Cole, Tracy Chapman, Tori Amos, Rilo Kiley and Jewel. (Remember what a radio was?)

She's 19-year old Taylor Janzen who -- like fellow Canadian Alanis Morissette -- specializes in composing confessions highlighting heartaches seemingly pulled directly from the pages of her private journal.

According to the author, the lyrics of “What I Do” are extremely personal and poignant, words she carefully layered underneath a guitar-driven, mid-tempo backbeat. It’s a familiar theme: The more one reaches out, the more the other pulls away.

“I know that you try your best, but there are things you just can't fix, and darling I am one of them…” 

Janzen explained to Apple Music, “I’ve struggled with mental health issues my whole life, and so when I got into my first serious relationship, I had to get used to the reality of those issues affecting the other person. This song is about not knowing what to do to change that.”

It was this revelation which made me wonder if those personal struggles became the reason the first four notes from her guitar perfectly mirror John Mandel’s 1970 composition, “Suicide Is Painless.” (Remember the theme from “M*A*S*H?”)

I seriously doubt it, but I found the correlation a somewhat curious coincidence.

Although “What I Do” has an ebb-and-flow feel that quickly glows-up in depth and dimension, this brief ballad (just under three-minutes) acoustically lands where it was launched but remains powerfully simple throughout.

“It started out as an acoustic folk song I wrote in my bedroom,” she says. “I’m so proud of what it’s morphed into, because I love exploring different sounds and energies in my music, while still keeping the core of my songwriting sacred. And this song is a perfect example of what that looks like for me.”

During the core of the track, Taylor delivers her vocals in a matter-of-fact manner which seems to match the emotional exhaustion found within her poetry. This all leads-up to an infectious chorus preceded by a momentary pause where she catches her breath before releasing a series of “OOHs” that come immediately after she does the “DOOs.” Each one more a bit more emotional than the last.

I hope you enjoy this latest find as much as I have. Her music video is posted below. And, I shall keep my ears peeled for more!

That’s just what I do.