Blogcritics The critical lens on today's culture & entertainment
The seventh studio album from Jesse Terry bubbles with hooky heartland rock, country rockers, and poetic folk-rock. The uplifting title track leads off a set that shows Terry at the peak of his songwriting craft. “Someone in Repair” seems to be about recovery from addiction or trauma. The theme is more literal in the easygoing funk of “Gunpowder Days,” which takes the perspective of a soldier adjusting to peacetime. The song’s spacey changes of feel exemplify Terry’s skill at fusing styles and tropes to create shiny nuggets that feel familiar yet capture attention.
The striking “Poison Arrow” similarly injects distortion and noise into a setting of melodic soul that’s focused on a raw chordal riff, suggestive of Neil Young and Crazy Horse. Powerful emotion runs through the country-rocker “Native Child,” addressed to a little one who represents a lost innocence: “Won’t you teach me now to be more like you are / A rollin’ field with no fences / My heart with no scars.”
“Waiting out the Hurricane” has a catchy Springsteen-esque churn and a beautifully crafted arrangement, contrasting with the spare and lovely folk ballad “Strong.” “Burn the Boats” with its irresistible chorus is a paean to hope. “Where You Came From” recalls George Harrison’s flowery artfulness. And the country rocker “River Town” lauds hometown roots wherever you can find them: “we got somewhere we can feel the stars / Somewhere we can dream out loud…we’ll never stray too far.”
Terry generally keeps messaging subtle, couched in the personal and the poetic. “Headlines” is the exception that proves the rule: “Headlines like a poison / A pill we swallow down / Headlines pulling left & right / When we need some common ground…oh my stars, how did we fall this far?” Moments of solace are all the more valuable. “Message from a Hummingbird,” the simple piano ballad that closes the album, evokes such a feeling, when “hard times are over / the spirits are calm / The wolves have moved on from the reeds.”
Arcadia finds Jesse Terry in a reflective state – deeply thoughtful, sometimes nostalgic, sometimes hopeful, sometimes lit with sparks of anger. The gamut of human feeling, tempered by years of life experience, play out in these 13 songs. Terry draws on a deep well of musical resources to build further on a career of using a time-tested stylistic vocabulary in the service of vital songcraft.
