If an artist manages to release at least four records in their career, history tells us that everything we need to learn about the depth of the player’s craft can be found in the tracklist of the first and last of this set. Enter Jake Allen’s Affirmation Day – in his fourth release, this singer/songwriter is committed to making sure that the very notion of holding back from the audience is off of the table from the moment we get started in the title cut-on.
URL: https://www.jakeallenmusic.com/
Swagger is an essential ingredient to the delivery of the personal statements of self and song Allen will unleash in tracks like “Prague 6,” “Living Ghost” or “Indigo Son,” but never does it become such a potent force that it verges on arrogance (if there’s one thing you won’t find in this LP, it’s self-righteousness). There’s a lot my man is unpacking here; “Only You” feels like a short-circuited confession that could only be beautiful through the fragmented lens of pop melodicism, while “Things We’ll Never Find” scoffs at defeated indulgences of poetry with something sharply efficient and, quite honestly, brutishly brooding as a result. There’s no stone he’ll leave unturned on this quest to be heard, and for my money, it amounts to a can’t-miss performance if I’ve ever heard one before.
While others in his medium have been adopting a minimalist approach to creating rhythm-focused harmonies, I love the grandeur of the previously mentioned “Things We’ll Never Find,” “More Than Meets the Eye” and shy “Two Faced.” Instrumentally, the tonality of the strings are contextualizing the spirit of the lyrics in these songs while giving us the chance to interpret them in a number of different ways (something that I’ve seen a lot of artists try to do but few actually succeed at), and even though I would have put “Rising Tide” and “I’ll See You On the Other Side” ahead of the trio we start off with here, the overall fluidity of the tracklist is magnificent. It’s clear that Jake Allen is nowhere near completion with regards to his evolutionary path as a songwriter, but while there are some areas of his sound that could still use some refining, it’s rather special to be able to say so about a player who is already well over ten years into his professional life.
APPLE MUSIC: https://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/jake-allen/293307100?ign-gact=3&ls=1
Weighty but endearing on several different and unique levels, Jake Allen’s Affirmation Day is a smashing listen that I think a lot of alternative pop and rock fans are going to hold in high regard this autumn season. Though he’s been involved in this line of work long enough to be called a veteran, this singer/songwriter sounds like he is still very excited about the future and what challenges and accomplishments it could potentially bring his way, and if there were any doubts about his staying power prior to the arrival of this most recent LP, I think they’re going to be put to bed as Affirmation Day finds an audience all its own.
Kim Muncie
