Description:
(2023) Jason Hawk Harris - Thin Places
Review:
Jason Hawk Harris has cycled through a lot of emotions since his solid 2019 Bloodshot debut Love & The Dark. The album brought a lot of praise from critics and fans alike, but over the next few years he experienced a number of setbacks that could have easily ended his burgeoning career: his record label imploded, a tornado struck while he was recording his sophomore album, and his mother passed away. And somewhere in between there was a global pandemic that shut down the world and likely had Harris guessing if his chosen profession would survive the pandemic. And that’s the basis for the origin story of Thin Places, a tour de force of emotional songwriting and a record that shows a massive musical leap from 2019 to now. “The process of grieving my mother’s death, of watching my life kind of fall apart around me brought me to this weird sort of nirvana,” he explains. “In those moments, I could feel these different worlds colliding around me, and I knew I wanted to find a way to capture it.” The album opens on “Jordan and the Nile,” a stunningly beautiful plea that covers the passing of his mother and an uncle but also talks about not giving up no matter how dark it gets, over strings and a harmonium all coming together like a prayer. His mother’s passing is also the focus on “Bring Out the Lillies,” a song relatable to anyone still feeling numb from losing someone so close to them. He sings about sitting in church on Easter Sunday, two days after his mom died, and having to listen to people tell him “It’s part of God’s plan.” The song manages to be emotionally vulnerable and musically brilliant at the same time. It’s probably one of the most relatable songs about death in recent memory. While themes of passing are weaved throughout the album, it’s not all sober moments of private reflection. “I’m Getting By” is almost triumphant in the chorus about surviving day to day, despite “losing it” every now and then. There is also a breathtakingly beautiful cover of Warren Zevon’s “Keep Me in Your Heart,” towards the end of the record. Musically, Harris leaned into his background studying classical music, making for a remarkably expansive sound from song to song. Across nine tracks, Harris is working through his grief in a way that manages to be both personal and surprisingly relatable. It may not be the record he intended to make following Love & The Dark, but it’s an album that many will keep coming back to again and again in the years to come. — glidemagazine
Track List:
01 - Jordan And The Nile
02 - Bring Out the Lillies
03 - Shine A Little Light
04 - Roll
05 - The Abyss
06 - I'm Getting By
07 - So Damn Good
08 - Keep Me In Your Heart For A While
09 - White Berets
Media Report:
Genre: americana, country
Country: Houston, Texas, USA
Format: FLAC
Format/Info: Free Lossless Audio Codec
Bit rate mode: Variable
Channel(s): 2 channels
Sampling rate: 44.1 KHz
Bit depth: 16 bits
Compression mode: Lossless
Writing library: libFLAC 1.2.1 (UTC 2007-09-17)
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