On My Way to Absence

Damien Jurado

Product Details

• Audio CD (April 5, 2005)
• Original Release Date: April 5, 2005
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Secretly Canadian
• ASIN: B0007UDCCQ
• In-Print Editions: Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #202,525 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com
On My Way To Absence finds this introspective singer-songwriter combining the quiet bearing which was a hallmark of his early work, with the more muscular rock of his I Break Chairs album. Damien Jurado and his longtime collaborator Eric Fisher have built these dozen songs with a pop sculptor's sense of space and scale. They're capable of anchoring the songs that one can imagine strummed plaintively and alone, to the subtle propulsion of drums (as on "Lion Tamer," "Simple Hello"). They also build songs over rhythmic foundations that are an inescapable part of the song's identity ("I Am The Mountain"). Lyrically the set is suffused with loss and jealousy, tempered with glimmers of hope and redemption. The set's closing number, "A Jealous Heart Is A Heavy Heart" ends with the simple plea, "Grow old with me." -- David Greenberger

Product Description
There comes a time in every artist’s career when he disconnects himself from the public. Fans, friends, critics – they’ll all be left behind in the creative process. When that break happens, it’s both liberating and terrifying. With On My Way To Absence, Damien Jurado has made such a break. He hung up the phone and left it lying on the counter, and in the process has created a quintessential Jurado piece of work – a masterpiece by one of today’s most incredible voices. Stripped of any inclination or genre-adopting, On My Way To Absence is the sound of Jurado and long-time collaborator Eric Fisher locked in a mental space for four months, periodically inviting friends (Rosie Thomas, Crooked Fingers frontman Eric Bachmann, and familiar faces Josh Golden, Seth Warren, David Broecker, Casey Foubert and Andy Myers) to contribute to the piece. Stripped of a hope to please, Jurado journeyed inward, veering into darker and darker territory. In the same manner that Nick ! Cave, Lucinda Williams and Gillian Welch consistently write songs that sound stoked in the fires of time, Jurado creates songs that sound old not because he’s mastered the structure of old-timey music, but rather because he’s captured a particular primal essence. He finds the quick truth and he sings it from his gut. Such is the magic of Damien Jurado.

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Quite A Listening Experience, October 23, 2006

By	KA "BearMan" (NYC Metro) - See all my reviews

Damien Jurado is definitely an artist who should be more known but one would guess he likes the way his career is going. No doubt he was courted by record labels to become a bigger star in some sense of the word or other. I'm glad he decided to stay on his own course and quietly put out great albums.

Damien Jurado definitely likes the darker side of things. He wrote quite a haunting song called "Medication" a couple of years ago that still stands as one of his best but as I followed him, I realized that he's the real deal. He can really write good songs. I'm not always in the mood for Damien but I do find myself returning to his music, especially in those introspective moments.

When I listen to Damien Jurado, I often think of Edgar Lee Masters' Spoon River Anthology which is a collection of poems written as if they were epitaphs. He can be a little intense and he's pretty fearless when it comes to writing some of the heavy writing he does. He's got a voice like no other and writes songs like no other. He's pretty unique. His ability to write piercingly honest and poignant songs is a little frightening. He does in one song what some artists could never do in a lifetime of writing music. Some of his musical story telling is sad but I guess you could say that there is much sadness in the world. We couldn't have happiness without it. He clearly understands this as he is prone to the darker side of things but we all have that streak in us don't we? He's just not afraid to explore it.