Damien Jurado‘s career recalls his soft, whispered voice. He’s an author who has never raised the volume too much and who has always followed his path with coherence and humility, without fanfare, regardless of the glamour and noise of the world outside. To be short, he’s a real outsider, one you have to scratch the surface to discover.
The new album finds Jurado also in the role of producer for the first time, after the last works in a successful association with producer Richard Swift. This partnership, after a good debut with “Saint Bartlett”, had produced the excellent Maraqopa trilogy (“Maraqopa”, “Brothers And Sisters Of the Eternal Son” and “Visions of Us on the land”) which saw the sound becoming denser, more stratified and psychedelic from chapter to chapter.
With this record, therefore, Jurado felt the need to go back to cultivating the art of song and we find a more typically singer-songwriter sound but capable of retaining the lesson learned in the previous experience.
The Seattle artist develops a simple recipe that does not focus so much on simple ingredients but on their amalgamation.
The basis is a generous dose of melodies that are as essential as they are effective. They sneak under youre skin when you listen to them, combined with the right amount bass and drums and mixed with a few piano chords and acoustic guitar to create a homogeneous mixture.
Once the basic dough is obtained, Jurado puts in from time to time well-defined ingredients that are used in a functional manner to final achievement of the author’s desired taste: be it string or reed arrangements, organ lines, a choir or an electric guitar, each of these elements plays the precise role of emphasizing the melody and the strength of the songs, which remain the absolute protagonists of the album.
In particular, the secret weapons of the record are the striking organ interventions and the second voice of Anna Lynne Williams (aka Lotte Kestner and former Trespassers Williams) who in a discreet and punctual manner comes in to double Jurado’s acute falsetto giving it more incisiveness.
The keyword of “The Horizon just laughed” turns out to be balance, obtained thanks to a dynamic where each component is dosed so as not to obscure the other but rather is used to highlight its strength.
Jurado takes care of his creatures with love and he shows not only his stature as a songwriter but also a surprising maturity as a producer.
After all, the single that anticipated the album “Over Rainbows and Rainier” confirmed the state of grace of the singer-songwriter. The song represents album’s apex as well as one of the most beautiful songs of his career, a country folk whose elements are: an enigmatic text, a “classic” melody in the best sense of the term and a sparse and essential guitar accompaniment on which stands a heartfelt interpretation that strongly evokes the “Texas Troubadour” Townes Van Zandt. Williams harmonies touch perfection, strings and winds seem to be suspended in the air, giving an evocative force to the bridge. It’s highly recommended listening to the song while watching his perfect complement, the videoclip.
The rest of the disc confirms the effectiveness of the scheme designed by Jurado with songs like “1973″, a ballad supported by an acoustic guitar that is gradually enriched with all the ingredients of the disc and the delicate “Lou Jean“, which completes the triptych of typical singer-songwriters’ style ballads in in an impeccable way following the sound imprint of “Over Rainbows and rainier“.
And then how not to be enchanted by “Dear Thomas Wolfe”, a superb melody and chorus refrain built on piano, a blocked guitar and a masterful performance by Jurado that is emphasized by the angelic choirs of Williams and by a sumptuous but impeccable arrangement of strings and reeds?
“Percy Faith” is an infectious song that makes the foot beat with drums, organ and piano that recall The Band’s sound and the usual strings miraculously poised between excess and measure while “The Great Washington State“, is a ballad reminiscent of the best Ryan Adams where a languid guitar that embroiders in the background is added to the usual elements . The evocative coda where the song melts into a bunch of organ notes that seem to pay homage to “Your time is gonna come” by Led Zeppelin is.
The songs that stand out from the ballad format are a little less incisive even if the languid “Allocate” and the more vigorous “Random Fearless“, furrowed by a single rock-blues guitar, are noteworthy. In both tracks you can find a majestic string arrangement that seems to me to quote Paul Buckmaster’s work.
In short, it’s just a little big record by a humble author who only aims to perpetuate the ancient art of song. One caveat: give “The Horizon Just Laughed” at least a couple of spins because the songs that maybe at the first listening will seem like something you’ve already heard need more plays to unravel. It may seem anachronistic in the world of spotify and youtube but perhaps this is the real secret of these small fragments of art.
By Mason
Originally published in italian on June 3 2018
Republished in english on May 12 2019
