The Outskirts Of A Giant Town by Jenifer Jackson

Latest review of OUTSKIRTS:

March 2007 TRIFECTAgram

Choice pick:

Jenifer Jackson – The Outskirts of a Giant Town

Her best album, the first instant classic to be

released this year. Over the course of her previous

six albums, Jackson has carved out a niche that is

uniquely her own, even though she wears her

influences on her sleeve (Bacharach, the Beatles, and

Brazilian jazz/pop most notably). There’s an

impressive clarity of vision that pervades her music

–a courageous one. It’s what Camus meant by “lucidite”

– it’s evident from the first song on this album that

this is someone who is firing on all cylinders, every

synapse wide awake and often painfully aware of what’s

going on. Her melancholy, intricate, jazz-inflected

psychedelia doesn’t shy away from despair or

loneliness. But there’s always a light at the end of

the tunnel: as strange as it may seem at first listen,

this is ultimately a hopeful, optimistic album.

Recorded live in the studio in order to evince as much

interplay between musicians as possible, it’s a

multistylistic tour de force, opening with Don’t Fade,

old school 60s- 70s soul with fluttery organ fills

and a soaring vocal. Like Sandy Denny, Jackson’s

formidable prowess as a singer may not be physical –

she’s not a big belter – but she packs an emotional

wallop.

The album’s next cut Suddenly Unexpectedly, set to a

fast shuffle beat with a bossa melody and layers of

keys is pure psychedelic tropicalia. The following

track, Saturday, is something of an epic, the most

powerful song she’s ever recorded. It starts out

somewhat Beatlesque, like a George song from the White

Album. She pedals a chord through the verse, then all

of a sudden the minor-key chorus descends: “It doesn’t

matter anyway – I’ll keep it in my memory, that lovely

Saturday” Then the second verse kicks in, and

everything picks up a notch. Jackson is also a

painter, and as the images unwind, this tersely

imagistic portrait of a young woman absolutely and

heartbreakingly alone is absolutely, heartbreakingly

beautiful.

After that, we get I Want to Start Something, more

old-school soul psychedelia, accordionist Sonny

Barbato playing some delicious licks off Jackson’s

equally tasty rhythm guitar. Then her voice takes

flight again at the end of the verse: “I’d like to

find a place that feels like home…been so many places

I don’t know why I can’t find it.”

The next cut Dreamland begins with a strangely

captivating, tinkly piano intro into a wash of

cymbals, then Jackson’s guitar kicks in all by itself.

It’s Nashville gothic with all kinds of eerie, echoey

effects from lead player Oren Bloedow’s guitar,

scarier than the fast, bluegrass-inflected version she

used to play live, and a gorgeously sad lyric: “The

way you loved me was a sin/I played a game I couldn’t

win/But still I tried to enter in/To the outer edge of

Dreamland.”

Other standout tracks on the cd include the title

track, gentle pastoral raga rock evocative of

Meddle-era Pink Floyd, with an amazing piano break by

Barbato; Anywhere I Would Journey, with its slow

descending progression and watery lead guitar; The

Change, an epic old-school soul song that Isaac Hayes

would be proud to have written; and For You, which

with its tricky time changes and 60s garage rock feel

wouldn’t be out of place on a Love Camp 7 record.

This album is generously multi-purpose: it’s a hell of

a headphone album, it would make a great bedroom

record, but it’s also a good thing to give to anyone

you know who’s going off the deep end. Jackson’s

gentle, soft voice and her wise, knowing lyrics offer

a kind of solace that’s completely absent in indie

rock, and the inspiring interplay of the killer band

behind her is mesmerizing. She deserves props for

having the guts to reach down into the abyss to come

up with some of the songs on this album, while never

losing sight of the subtle, frequently surreal wit

that so many of them are imbued with. It’s only March,

but I think we’ve found the best album of 2007 and

this is it. Cds are available at cdbaby.com, in better

record stores and at shows, peep the website,

http://www.jeniferjackson.com. Jenifer Jackson and

band play the Mercury Lounge on Monday March 19 at 8

PM

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