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Damien Jurado, "On My Way to Absence"
Damien Jurado dabbles thoughtfully in Americana, making the whole ofour country's midlands his playground. His songwriting has always beensharp (lauded and even appropriated by artists like Neil Halstead) andit loses none of it acuteness on these most recent twelve songs.
Secretly Canadian
As aprelude to this album, Jurado released "Just in Time For Something," anEP which featured five songs of the most lo-fi, scratchy recordingquality possible. It was a beautiful listen, full of demo-qualitybrilliance and hearing it felt like being let into the songs at theirsynthetic moment of creation. Contrariwise, On My Way to Absenceis further down the evolutionary scale for Jurado's songs. Thearrangements are fuller, with pianos, drums, trumpets, strings, basses,and even a wandering glockenspiel. The recording is more technical,exhibiting none of the bedroom qualities so lush in the EP. If youlisten carefully enough, though, you can still hear the nascent stagesof the songs in their more mature versions here. Frustratingly, I findmyself doing this through most listens of the album because Iappreciate Jurado's songwriting without the adornment of addedinstruments around him and his guitar. For those with such low fidelityfidelity, Jurado rewards us with two songs ("Northbound" and "Fuel") ofpure man and guitar (though not sounding particularly lo-fi).Curiously, most of Jurado's spare songs lyrically have something to dowith automobiles, including songs from the EP (like "Engine Fire").Perhaps this is symptomatic for the musician who tours widely without adecadent or decent tour bus. My pickiness aside, there are some finesongs with full-band treatment. "Night Out For the Downer" is thesinuous tendon which connects both this album and the EP, having thefull-band version on the album and the acoustic version on the EP. Thesong actually succeeds here better than it does on the EP, which seemsto contradict a lot of what I have offered so far but I say it's theexception which proves the rule. Honestly, it might be the glockenspielwhich wins me over for the album version. The album's best effort isthe opener "White Center." In the verses, Jurado's voice pleasantly andplayfully mimics his guitar before giving way to the stringed choruses.The entire album is a mix of lullabies and gentle rockers, sometimesfurther hybridizing into Frankensteinian "rocking lullabies" like theinfectious "Simple Hello." In the liner notes, Jurado thanks hisproducer/engineer/bandmate Eric Fisher and claims "without you my songshave no life." I would disagree. Jurado's songs do indeed have lifewithout the complement of the studio. It's just a different life:smaller, more modest, and less apt to stumble with a torso too largefor its feet.
Secretly Canadian
As aprelude to this album, Jurado released "Just in Time For Something," anEP which featured five songs of the most lo-fi, scratchy recordingquality possible. It was a beautiful listen, full of demo-qualitybrilliance and hearing it felt like being let into the songs at theirsynthetic moment of creation. Contrariwise, On My Way to Absenceis further down the evolutionary scale for Jurado's songs. Thearrangements are fuller, with pianos, drums, trumpets, strings, basses,and even a wandering glockenspiel. The recording is more technical,exhibiting none of the bedroom qualities so lush in the EP. If youlisten carefully enough, though, you can still hear the nascent stagesof the songs in their more mature versions here. Frustratingly, I findmyself doing this through most listens of the album because Iappreciate Jurado's songwriting without the adornment of addedinstruments around him and his guitar. For those with such low fidelityfidelity, Jurado rewards us with two songs ("Northbound" and "Fuel") ofpure man and guitar (though not sounding particularly lo-fi).Curiously, most of Jurado's spare songs lyrically have something to dowith automobiles, including songs from the EP (like "Engine Fire").Perhaps this is symptomatic for the musician who tours widely without adecadent or decent tour bus. My pickiness aside, there are some finesongs with full-band treatment. "Night Out For the Downer" is thesinuous tendon which connects both this album and the EP, having thefull-band version on the album and the acoustic version on the EP. Thesong actually succeeds here better than it does on the EP, which seemsto contradict a lot of what I have offered so far but I say it's theexception which proves the rule. Honestly, it might be the glockenspielwhich wins me over for the album version. The album's best effort isthe opener "White Center." In the verses, Jurado's voice pleasantly andplayfully mimics his guitar before giving way to the stringed choruses.The entire album is a mix of lullabies and gentle rockers, sometimesfurther hybridizing into Frankensteinian "rocking lullabies" like theinfectious "Simple Hello." In the liner notes, Jurado thanks hisproducer/engineer/bandmate Eric Fisher and claims "without you my songshave no life." I would disagree. Jurado's songs do indeed have lifewithout the complement of the studio. It's just a different life:smaller, more modest, and less apt to stumble with a torso too largefor its feet.samples:
