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Jesse Sykes & The Sweet Hereafter | Reckless Burning

Heartache with reckless abandon.
CD, Burn Burn Burn

Tekst: Dave Weil

Publicatiedatum: 17 april 2002

The hardest thing that an artist has to overcome is having a unique "voice". This isn't just a reference to vocal talent but also to the overall sound as well. Jesse Sykes is three-quarters of the way there with this, her strong debut album Reckless Burning. And this is three-quarters better than most.

This is a bittersweet album that will transport you to the arid Southwest of the US, even though Sykes hails from the Seattle area. She has a lot in common with her fellow Pacific Northwest gal, Neko Case, although she doesn't have the exuberance of Ms. Case. Ms. Sykes's voice is distinctive and has just the right trace of corn whiskey and too many cigarettes. (Heck, with my luck she's probably a non-smoking, teetotalling vegan. No wait: She's languorously smoking on the black and white cover, and she sings of drinking with strangers and of "gin-soaked and lonely.") She has the smoke of a thousand picking sessions and the poise of a woman who fights her way back heartache after heartache. (Heck, with my luck she's probably still with her high school sweetheart - or perhaps it's her tasteful guitarist, Phil Wandscher, originally from Whiskeytown.)

The album opens with a scary organ and some guitar feedback but then settles into a quiet groove that never really leaves. With tasteful, reverb-drenched guitar reminiscent of Chris Isaak, the minor key melodies sound like 3am after the end of a particularly painful affair. Her voice perfectly captures the weariness of a life lived to the fullest, and it's a voice that comforts, because one feels that it's a shared experience with ours, after all.

The name of Jesse Sykes's band is particularly apt because it's very reminiscent of the mood and feel of Atom Egoyan's best film work. Moody and languid, it develops at its own pace, weaving stories of personal hardships.

Why did I say that she's only three-quarters of the way there? Well, in some places it's so reminiscent of Chris Isaak that one feels that it approaches being derivative. But that's not a bad thing at all. One feels that she's going to establish herself in her own light. Her voice is fully developed and matches her lyrics perfectly.

Well-produced and evocative, this music earns the moniker of her music publishing company, Spooky American Music.

Like Talking Heads, she's burning the house down. And she's in the process of rebuilding it.

http://www.kindamuzik.net/recensie/jesse-sykes-the-sweet-hereafter/reckless-burning/1470/
Meer Jesse Sykes & The Sweet Hereafter op KindaMuzik: http://www.kindamuzik.net/artiest/jesse-sykes-the-sweet-hereafter