Darren Jessee – The Jane, Room 217 

Darren Jessee – The Jane, Room 217 

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While musical harmony is completely subjective, there’s nothing quite like the sound of a raw, strumming acoustic guitar punctuated with a voice as organic as the instrumentation is. The Jane, Room 217, Darren Jessee’s critically acclaimed new LP, is all about capturing the magic of that marriage and compressing it into nine of the most authentically stylish tracks of the year, and singer/songwriter aficionados have plenty to get excited about with its release. Produced with tremendous attention to detail and tempered under the creative wit of Jessee, whose devotion to his craft is unquestionable and highlighted with grandeur in this record, The Jane, Room 217 isn’t your mama and papa’s folk-rock album. It’s a look into the future of pop as described by its most earnest and humble observer.

The Jane, Room 217 starts with “Anything You Need,” an almost angst-ridden ballad saturated with a contemplative prose that is thought-provoking and transcendent in its narrative. It’s a nice warm up for the rollicking “True Blue,” which emerges from the darkness like the first light of day and carefully leads us into the soaring highs of “Letting You Go.” I found the first three tracks of The Jane, Room 217 to flow into each other much like the opening chapters of a gripping novel; once we allow Darren Jessee into our hearts, he puts his feet up and makes himself comfortable on a nice bedding of richly textured melodic reflection. His vulnerability is fetching, and his willingness to go out on a limb with us refreshingly warm and real.

“Dying Violins” doesn’t hold back from laying the full weight of Darren Jessee’s brooding on us, and if we’re able to endure its leering objectivity there’s an unexpected smile waiting around the corner for us in the glassy “Ruins.” “Ruins” was a close runner-up for my favorite song of the album, but its follow-up “Leaving Almost Ready” takes the prize as the reason I now consider myself to be a serious fan of this songwriter and his brilliant approach to making affectionate melodies. “All But a Dream” takes us in a slightly more atmospheric direction as we start to near the end of the record, but the space doesn’t go unutilized by Jessee, who effectively uses the ambience to further illustrate his deep connection with the music he’s playing for us in this album.

The sobering “Plastic Bag” reignites the cathartic fire first lit in “Anything You Need” as if to bring the overarching thematic elements of The Jane, Room 217 full-circle before Jessee launches into the concluding ballad “Go on Baby Break Down,” which stands as the most evocative closing track I’ve heard in the last five years bar none. The Jane, Room 217 requires a lot of emotional depth to really be able to relate to its colorful assortment of introspective tirades and stunning, beautiful admissions of self-awareness that are powerful enough to bring the most hardnosed among us to their knees. I emphatically encourage music fans to give this record a spin at the soonest possible occasion – you won’t regret it.

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Mindy McCall