Customer Reviews

Saint Bartlett [+Digital Booklet]

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Whatever the Damien Jurado sound is, it is brought to new heights here. Influences of traditional folk music, garage rock and short storytelling weave together to make some of his best work yet. This is a great album from one of America's greatest living songwriters.

Damien Jurado's 'St. Bartlett': where do I begin? That raspy voice can do no wrong. The Northwest native is no less a part of the rain-drenched Seattle scene than microbrews, flannel, rockstar run-ins, and in-you-face organics. Jurado is also integral part of my adolescene; dark winters fueled aided with "It's Hard to Find a Friend, Something About Airplanes, and Where Have All the Merrymakers Gone?.

Barlett's is such a notable album, both for Jurado's career and for the year thus-far. No, he may not be as much a household name as say the Fleet Foxes, or Death Cab for Cutie, but his music will break through that misty Cascade mountain wall.

"Arkansas" for starters finds itself somewhere in-between 'The River' era Springsteen and Spector-produced girl groups, with hammerdrop staccoto keys that can fill up any hungry heart.

"Rachel & Cali" is the standout track. So simple, but so engaging; It's a coming of age, self-consciensce tale told through the conversations of two friends, one who isn't afraid to admit "I just don't feel comfortable in crowds." This song is nostalgic, whether it be for Jurado or the listener. The awkward social moment is painfully universal, if not unavoidable. Whether you want to look at it metaphorically or literally, Jurado does more with words in three minutes than most bands will do all year.

Although Saint Bartlett echoes absolute talents of singer/songwriter past, the album still feels modern, and most importantly, still feels personal. This is a Damien Jurado album, through and through. No question. The ability to produce music under these guidelines, with genuine ingenuity, free of mimicry or gimmicks, is a rare feat. Bartlett encompasses Jurado for everything he's worth: his ability to write songs effectively and efficiently, compose melodies, evoke an emotional response, and staying inventive while still remaining in the confines of a Seattle songwriter profile.

For decades critics have been searching for "The New Dylan", most recently it seems they have switched to finding "The New Springsteen", pushing bands such as The Hold Steady and The Gaslight Anthem. So behold, "The New Neil Young".
Seriously, I have been a huge devotee of Mr. Jurado since On My Way To Absence.
He is consistently a great songwriter-both lyrically and musically. His music is
usually dark, melancholy, sometimes bleak but there is something soothing about
the pervasive pathos in his music not unlike Leonard Cohen's or Bonnie Prince Billie's.
If you took the sound of Neil Young at his most darkly introspective and somehow melded it with the sound of Elliot Smith at his most tuneful you might come close to approximating Jurado's sound. This CD finds him building and expanding on his previous work-if this is not his best it stands with his best. Neil hasn't written songs with this directness and brilliance in ages.

Yes, you can hear Neil Young in spots, and Leonard Cohen in "Beacon Hill", but this is an incredible album. Atmospheric and extremely moving at times. Highly recommended. Damien's been around since the late 90s and I've tried getting into some of his earlier albums, but nothing has struck me quite like this one. Buy it, you'll love it. Richard Swift's production is spot-on and word is he's also producing Damien's next record, so very much looking forward to that.

I first heard damien on npr and enjoyed one of his songs so decided to order the cd. I was pleasantly surprised to enjoy most of the songs on it. A great artist that I've been missing out on.

So I bought this. I put it on a few times here and there, and got into it at a distance, because "Caught In the Trees" was really good.

Then "Kansas City" came on. It was all I could do, seriously, not to take the thing out, break the CD with a hammer and pulverize it into little pieces. It was torture of the highest order to even make it two-thirds of the way through that track. Don't know why, maybe its because the song "Kansas City" was a carbon copy of about 3 songs on "Caught In the Trees", note for freaking note and in song structure. Or maybe it's because that vocal inflection thing he does throughout got so predictable I wanted to bash my face through a speaker to stop the noise coming from it. I felt like I was in Orwell's Room 101 with my arms and legs immobilized against a rusty chair with headphones on me, playing that track until I shrieked a primal scream and was transported to some otherworldly paradise after my brain melted into a liquefied mass. It was that bad.

This guy just doesn't do it for me on this album. No question about it, and you're not going to convince me otherwise. But it's cool, because everyone here has raised all kinds of nifty comparisons like Neil Young (uh huh), Leonard Cohen (yikes), and Springsteen. So that must mean he's awesome, and I get to sit at the uncool table in the lunch room.