A Letter To Katherine December (studio album) by Jake Holmes

From Mercury 10/19/2017 20:35

Man, this album is a trip. The utter lack of acoustic guitars is notable especially compared to his first album. But the whole album even when its quietest uses electric guitars with beautiful little effects. And this album is "Psychedelic" but in a very interesting and unique way. It doesn't sound ridiculous in its psychedelia.

His voice is strange and has similar sounds to Tim Buckley at times (but not in at all all Tim Buckley's glory, so don't at all go in thinking you're in for a Tim Buckley through and through equal.), and the production is sad and yet menacing at times in a similar vein to Forever Changes. There are lots of horns and strings, especially on side 1. And there are parts of this album which totally reminded me of Destroyer in its matter of fact peotic ramblings with somewhat strange musical soundscapes swirling around the vocal, this is especially true of track 2 "Late Sleeping day". And another thing I love about this album is its incisive, i mean the productiona nd the sound of the instruments are all so clear, the drummer kills, and the bass is great and the guitars twinkle, and even the somewhat annoying horns all are at least very vibrant and in your face. There is no bleeding of the instruments together in other words.

This is just a fantastic and recommended album. The sound quality or the production qualities do date it a bit, but once you get past that methinks if you're a Love, Tim Buckley, or any number of late 60s weirdos fan then you'll be glad you checked this out.

Oh and "Leaves Never Break" is a fucking masterpiece! It starts so actually frighteningly intense then explodes into this other worldly psychedelic jam which to my ears is insanely great. The vocals are drenched in menace, with this horn off in the distance, and then the vocals occasionally explode and crack and are recorded in such an abrasive way. And the albums shifts between loud and quiet, back and forth. Then the song segues into the next track "It's Always Somewhere Else" which is this very nimble jazz song with stellar songwriting. The way it shifts is so great. Seriously this part of the album in particular will make you Forever Changes fans swoooooooon.Yeah its stellar.

Jake Holmes and this album deserve a whole hell of a big bundle of love. Do your part, ye who readeth this!

9.0/10