Jeremy Parsons – Things I Need to Say

Jeremy Parsons – Things I Need to Say

URL: https://jeremyparsonsmusic.com/jeremy-parsons-music

Unfamiliar with Jeremy Parsons’ music before hearing Things I Need to Say, I didn’t know what to expect going into hearing this album. The thirteen song collection is billed as country/pop, but even a single listen to the album proved to me the label is undeserved in the strictest sense of the term.  There’s no question from the first song, “Makin’ Things Up as I Go”, that Parsons has an unerring instinct for traditional song forms that are among pop music’s mainstays, but the opener never comes across like it’s arbitrary or pandering. Instead, “Makin’ Things Up as I Go” comes off as a perfectly organic and natural creation, albeit one cannily employing a familiar bit of every day speech for its payoff hook. I have listened to the album’s second song, “Life”, more than many others for a variety of reasons, but chief among them is the striking contrast it makes with the generally cheerful opener and the musical and lyrical excellence dovetailing into one another. Parsons’ voice will grow more and more on you during this release, if you haven’t heard him before, and “Life” is a song where his outstanding phrasing talents and emotive style stand out for the first time.

There’s some mournful slide guitar licks dispersed throughout “Circumstance” and an initially spartan accompaniment with occasional punctuation marks before Parsons hits the first chorus. I am deeply impressed with how artfully Parsons’ songwriting frames essential truths and the direct, often biting, way he expresses familiar imagery and songwriting turns. His vocals carry much of the album, but Things I Need to Say often includes key backing vocals, typically during the chorus, and this is one of the best examples of how it enriches these fine performances. The piano lines occasionally rising to the surface of the mix are an especially nice touch. One of the album’s key tracks and a single release, “Burn This House Down” is a near note perfect spin through heartache and a desire to move on and forget it all expressed in some of the strongest imaginable terms. It’s one of the album’s creative highpoints musically and the production succeeds in giving the track a distinctly different spin than earlier numbers.

“Purpose” pops with just that, a boisterous rock and bluesy spirit bursting from the recording, and the rugged harmonica playing streaking the track only underlines its musical debts. Parsons definitely has the chops and authoritative edge to make his vocals work in this context without losing any of the nuanced touch he brings to the album’s lyrics. “Driftin’” is an uptempo song about rootlessness and the sweeping slide guitar lines criss-crossing the track definitely invokes the passing grandeur of faceless miles, both literal and figurative. “Devil’s Daughter” has a rootsy line of attack, mid-tempo, and an easy affability to the arrangement counter-balancing another serious minded Parsons lyric. His title song for the release rates as one of the best tunes on Things I Need to Say and achieves its lasting effects through a more deliberate build than usual on this collection. You’ll likely hear this album once and, like me, good naturedly rue you didn’t discover him sooner. Jeremy Parsons really makes his mark with this new studio release.

SPOTIFY: https://open.spotify.com/album/6h93tJtmWjjPyTDwZgETjC

Mindy McCall