When I heard Jarryd James was going to release an EP so soon after his debut album, I can’t tell you how excited I was. While scrolling through my Facebook news feed that day, I came to a picture of the EP’s cover.
“The last six months have been pretty emotional and I worked with some incredible musicians and songwriters. Stoked for you guys to finally hear these songs. High EP, out July 29,” the words above the image read loud and clear.
The EP bore the same name as the final song on James’ album, which also features as the final song on the EP. It allows a continuation between each of them and created a bond between each of the stories they told. It was like opening a book to a new chapter in his musical journey with five fresh tracks to take in.
It opens with his latest single featuring BROODS 1000x. Although I have heard it before, it seems to get better and better with each listen. This song seems to have the same effect as a refreshing gust of wind on a warm day. Its power soars between the soulful vocals and rich melody as the romantic tone flows through the words. It’s the perfect way to show the listener exactly what they are in for.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qYEoD7TfSJM
How Do We Make It was the first of the new tracks that I hadn’t heard yet. As soon as it started, all I could do was sit back, close my eyes and take it all in. The slow sounds of the percussion and piano chimed their way through the intro as James began to sing about his relationship struggles. The vivid descriptions and emotion in his falsetto explore the feeling of slowly growing apart from someone you love and the desire to revive a relationship that “no one can save”.
The chilled out sounds continue with Claim My Love. The desperation flows through the song with a slightly sinister sound mixed with a crashing passion; exactly like falling back in love with someone who has hurt you before. You know it’s wrong, but it so hard to resist. “Don’t let me go back in// don’t let me go down with you// don’t let me fall again// don’t let me fall again.”
Moving on to Burning Out, a song which can have a double meaning. While it is probably written to be about falling out of love, I interpreted it differently. For me as a creative, I see it as a song about feeling overworked and losing your passion to create the things you care about. As someone who has experienced these ‘burnt out’ feelings in full swing and seen the consequences of it, it allowed me to connect to this song in my own unique way and put those feelings into words. Where was it when I needed it?
The last of the five new tracks in Can’t Help It brings the hopelessness of love to life for the final time before he reflects on the relationship that was had in High. The slow melody allows a focus on the beautiful lyrics that explore the weakness that begs us to hang on to things that cause so much pain. “Cross my heart and hope to try// I know tears will fall// You know I can’t help it.”
High is out now via Universal Music.
Image: Idolator
With the release for their second album Conscious, brother-sister duo BROODS bring us a running tale, exploring themes of coping with a lost love, communicated via sweet electro-pop beats and strong lyrics.
The opening song Free sounds exactly like the title. The first thing we hear is the beauty of Georgia Nott’s voice as it sings a cappella, drawing us in and holding our attention. The upbeat track gives you the ability to dance like no one’s watching as the music washes over you like an avalanche, with lyrics dripping in strength and determination, as if they were written to empower us when we’re at our weakest. “I’d lose everything so I can sing, ‘Hallelujah I’m free, I’m free, I’m free, I’m free, I’m free’.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LDsxtBVLyss
Moving on to their duet with Tove Lo, Freak of Nature gives us something a little different from the other tracks in the album. As it began with a pretty little intro, it immediately became a standout track for me. The piano and synth combination was not one that I would have thought would sound as good as it does. The addition of the percussion provides another layer to what can only be described as an organic rawness mixed with a modern twist. The girls’ voices compliment each other so well, as the gorgeous sounds of these storytellers rise above the explosion of music.
This follows on to All Your Glory, which shines with a backing track that sounds like an organ. The slow song allows you to focus on the beautiful words and the emotion intertwined through the beautiful harmonies. It shows the difficult of letting someone you care so much about go, even after they’ve done the wrong thing. It focuses on the idea of allowing yourself to forget what they’ve done and forgive them to allow your relationship to go back to the way it was. “Don’t need an apology to make it right, I want you in all your glory.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vUkUp6Yb5Go
The light harmonies between the siblings are back for Worth The Fight, following on from Couldn’t Believe. Worth The Fight’s heavy percussion creates a really strong beat that immediately inspires a sing and dance; unlike All Your Glory, however, the tables are turned and the protagonist is the one asking for forgiveness. Whether we have been the one at fault in a relationship or we have decided to blame ourselves for the relationship we are determined to recover, the lyrics portray a feeling many of us have felt in the past. “I pray, I pray, I pray I might, still be somebody worth the fight.”
Admittedly, the album does feel repetitive in some parts, making it a little bit difficult to figure out what to say about some of the tracks. Conscious, however, was a different story. When you realise all the other songs focus on longing for someone you’ve lost, this track seems like she’s begging for a wake up call; something to free her from these self-destructive feelings. She gathers strength as she sings through her pain. Although “all [her] nightmares feel like real life,” she begs someone to “wake [her] up and keep [her] conscious”. It’s such a strong way to finish off the album.
If you want to start your weekend with some high-energy, feel-good sounds, I suggest you give this album a go. While you’re at it, check out the duet between Nott and Jarryd James 1000x.
Image: The AU Review
Jarryd James and BROODS have come together for this brand new single 1000x. If you liked James’ duet with Julia Stone, I suggest you check this one out.
This one between James and BROODS’ Georgia Nott has a sweet calming vibe, blending Nott’s soft vocals with James’ signature soulful sound. You can see how perfect the slow song is for winter as you imagine yourself walking as you listen to it on a cold day while the wind dances around the trees. Their voices create perfect chemistry as they tell this intimate story together.
James said this was “an older song” that he “was never 100 per cent sure of” until Nott, who he connected with through mutual friend producer Joel Little, heard and enjoyed it. “We thought, ‘Why don’t we get her to sing on it too’, make it a duet kind of thing. So she went and recorded some vocals, and when I heard it, I was like ‘Shit, this is so awesome!’.”
Upon its release, James described their friendship and the meaning of the song in a Facebook post. “I am so proud to have one of the best people in the world singing on this track with me. It’s a song about how strong love can be when it is real.”
The ARIA award winning artist has been super busy. While he is now preparing to play at Chicago’s Lollapalooza festival on July 30th, he also mentioned that he has written and recorded five songs.
“It’s been pretty crazy – like I landed home in Brisbane from a gig in New York, then four days later, I was back on a plane to L.A. for these sessions. But that’s the way it goes man – you know, you’ve just gotta jump on that and go with it,” he said.
While James released his debut album last year, BROODS’ second album Conscious will be available at the end of this week.
Let the music take you away by tuning in to 1000x below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3FV7pnTNeo
Image: YouTube
Photos by Charlotte Hickmott
Meg Mac
Jarryd James
Kita Alexander
On a sweltering Thursday night in Brisbane’s Fortitude Valley with storms surrounding the city and lightning cracking the sky, a sell-out crowd packed themselves into local institution The Tivoli to witness a team-up by two of Australia’s premiere young talents currently enjoying a co-headlining national tour: Jarryd James and Meg Mac.
The opening act is a local, and one whose star has shot skyward all year and at warp speed following the release of her Like You Want To EP, the ultra-cool Kita Alexander. Possessed with an absolutely stunning voice completely belying her 19 years and using it to croon over some of the cleverest and most satisfying synth-pop hits to grace your ears all year, Kita closes her set with a one-two knockout blow of Go My Own Way and Like You Want To, both of which were spun like tops over the Triple J airwaves from about as soon as they were released, keeping the slowly swelling Tivoli crowd enthralled the entire time. Rest assured this young lady is going to go wherever she wants in the very near future.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MweO0cr8YLg
It takes all of about five minutes following Kita Alexander’s exit for The Tivoli to all of a sudden turn into a sardine tin. Meg Mac wastes little time in taking to the stage and proceeds to hammer home an absolutely fantastic set. She’s joined by her regular back-up singer Dani as well as her sister Hannah (who wasn’t with her in Brisbane for the last tour). We caught her last time on her solo headline tour at Max Watt’s in Brisbane’s West End and were left with goosebumps for days afterwards, this set brought them all roaring back.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aSIHoQJjDKk
All the usual favourites are there, a bonechilling rendition of Known Better, her always heartfelt cover of Grandma’s Hands made originally famous by Bill Withers, the barely restrained fury of Every Lie. As far as new material goes, she throws in her own utterly stunning version of Jimmy Ruffin’s What Becomes Of The Broken Hearted, plays Cages, a song she introduced us to here for the very first time the last time she was out and one she dedicates to her brother as ‘the only reason he came to the show in Sydney’ and also plays us yet another brand new song, exploring some rough days if you paid attention to the lyrics, though you’d be forgiven if you found yourself lost in that heavenly voice at all, it happens to the best of us.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZ-l6FDu7T4
There’s no sign of co-headliner Jarryd as Meg closes the show in thunderous fashion, threatening to explode all of our brains with Roll Up Your Sleeves and this year’s smash hit Never Be back-to-back. Once again, Meg has ripped the absolute roof off. Somehow her voice gets better and better and reaches untold heights every single time I see her. She exits the stage to a deafening ovation but I have a feeling we’ve not seen the last of Meg Mac just yet…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nVZfhc1JXA4
Having made the mistake of waiting too long to head inside for Meg’s set and being stuck waaaay way up the back, I suck it up and get out of the fresh air early to get a good spot in the front for Jarryd James. The humidity is reaching atrocious levels, everyone who held onto their paper ticket using it as a fan, but thankfully the wait isn’t too long for the final set.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f43T6OuM3hI
Meg Mac is a nigh-impossible act to follow from a vocal perspective but Jarryd is well up to the challenge. The temperature might be volcanic but he injects a whole lot of cool into the Tivoli from the moment he takes the stage and plays everyone’s favourites from his unfathomably good debut LP Thirty One. He stuns the audience with his live renditions of the tracks they’ve spent the whole year falling in love with. The gorgeously lilting Sell It To Me, the laid back lounge neo-soul of Sure Love, the foot-stomping raunch of Give Me Something, the chorus of which drops the floor out from underneath everyone.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NaMufZNa2lQ
In between tracks Jarryd is humble and soft-spoken, expressing how thankful he is at how far he’s come so very quickly, admitting it’s still incredibly difficult for him to get up and do this in front of an audience (it really doesn’t seem like it Jarryd!) and engaging in a bit of banter with the audience (chuckling momentarily at the enormous dude just near me who keeps making what sound like really odd bird calls to break up any silences). Out of nowhere, a familiar voice breaks out and Meg Mac is floating onto the stage to fill in for Julia Stone and lob Jarryd up the alley oop pass on the sublime Regardless.
This is the moment everyone has waited all night for, the galactically outrageous collision of two of the most superb young voices in the entire country, and boy does it not disappoint for even a second. Chills and goosebumps and shivers all at once for an amazing duet that finishes and sees Meg take her second exit far too soon.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=avBECwDvdBk
The heat is long forgotten as Jarryd belts out more stunners in his repertoire, This Time (Serious Symptoms, Simple Solutions) an absolute hair-raising treat. All of a sudden, after over an hour spent with jaws on the floor everywhere, he’s running through a monolithic, slow-burning rendition of Do You Remember, unquestionably his biggest hit to date, and reality sets in that the show is almost over. The lights go out for a brief moment, and when they return it’s Jarryd, Meg and backup singers Hannah and Dani onstage again for one last go around. They leave an audience beyond stoked and satisfied with a sizzling duet of Ray Charles‘ Misery In My Heart, there’s a whole lot of it in mine not knowing when we’ll ever see these two performing alongisde each other again
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQ7XJG0Z2ho
Absolutely. Fucking. Amazing. If we can get a Watch The Throne album from these two I think a lot of us would die happy. What a stellar moment for Australian music and such a bright and wonderful vision of its future to have two of its absolute best come together and join forces on a tour like this.
Please do it again soon.
Jarryd James‘ break-out (and now, ARIA Award-winning) hit Do You Remember is easily going to be remembered as one of the biggest Australian songs of 2015. The track immediately shot James to fame, and he achieved massive widespread radio play, a sell-out tour despite having released only one track, a collab with Julia Stone, a stellar debut album and even more sell-out tours. year.
The track blends haunting electronica with soul-tinged pop pop. It shot James straight into the national spotlight, and we imagine it’s only a matter of time before the Brisbane-born artist becomes an international juggernaut. Earlier this month, UK producer Melé released a gorgeous remix of the ARIA-nominated track.
While the original song is as motivational as it is haunting, Melé brings some funk to the mix- funk you didn’t even realise was necessary. It retains the depth of the original, while reworking it into a dance track suitable for any local bar/club. It’s fun, to put it bluntly.
To see this pair partnered together is odd, in a way. Melé’s former remix credits include Disclosure, Wretch 32 and Gucci Mane. To see him remixing an alternative artist like Jarryd James is as surprising as it is delightful.
Have a listen to the track below:
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uNpJIpXRQcA&w=560&h=315]
James’ album, Thirty One was released to Australian audiences last September. You can purchase it here.
Jarryd James is also set to embark on a joint three-date tour with Meg Mac next week, with Kita Alexander on support. Details below:
Friday, 4th December
Enmore Theatre, Sydney
Lic/All Ages
Tickets
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nVZfhc1JXA4]
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQ7XJG0Z2ho]
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MweO0cr8YLg]
Friday, 4th December
Enmore Theatre, Sydney
Lic/All Ages
Tickets
My review of Jarryd James’ first single Do You Remember? was one of the first articles I had written on this site. From that moment, his name stuck with me as one of the artists I needed to keep an eye on.
As I learnt more about him, I found that he was only starting to break out in the music industry now, at age 30. He was not only breaking into the industry, he was absolutely killing it. His impressive single climbed the ARIA charts, he sold out two national tours and was blasted across all forms of radio. It’s clear that Australia loves him. He showed me that passion and dedication can keep you going, even when your path doesn’t seem as clear as you’d like it to be. Good opportunities will come when you least expect them.
Now, I am proud to have the pleasure of reviewing his debut album Thirty One.
The trumping heartbeat that pumped throughout the opening track Sell It To Me encouraged me to plug in my headphones. I suggest you do as well. Close your eyes and the sounds of pure serenity will flood your ears. It’s as if you’re floating in a pool of water. While his singles are great, you can already tell he has left some of his best work for the album.
Underneath is another example of this. The words dictate a story that can only be described as the final phase before giving it up. The programmed sounds, the percussion and guitar are a unique base, keeping you interested when there are no words. This song will have you hooked as you digest all elements of the track, from his uneven vocal pace, to the surprise guitar solo at the end.
This album made me truly realise how much soul James possesses. Sure Love will crash its way into your heart, with a strong RnB-inspired sound. As you listen to the lyrics, you are able to hear him harmonise with himself, as his normal tone and falsetto combine. The part where the music stops and James sings a cappella is especially magical. Do You Remember? follows on from here. I’ve already told you what I think of it. I will never get sick of hearing this song.
Undone is a ballad of sadness and raw emotion. It’s the point in the mourning process following a broken relationship where all you can do is sit and reflect on what you’ve lost. He concludes the story with “I don’t know how to say this,” which is where all the things you want to say to the person are reduced to silence. The RnB twist is back for Regardless, which features Julia Stone. Her vocals blend well with James’, while the sensual and passionate atmosphere of the song will leave you feeling tingly.
There is then a short interlude. James’ distorted voice is difficult to understand. The sound of a ticking clock runs through musical bursts, and when you look at the album title, you’ll see the significance. It’s in reference to James’ age this year, and as well as the fact that in December he would outlive his father, who passed away at 30 years of age. Life is like a time bomb that continues to tick. This Time has a few interesting sound effects in it as well. There is something that sounds like someone flicking through a stack of pages, which was a cool addition. He sung about the love he is about to lose with beautiful harmonies and his signature tone. The violins ensure that the song closes in a light and unique way.
There has been a running theme of heartbreak throughout the album. Giving It Up seems to give it a different spin by suggesting that it wasn’t always a choice. Lyrics like “we could run away” support the idea that there was something else causing Jarryd and his significant other to “give it up”. It echoes the sound of Do You Remember?, with a different tone. It’s more sad than edgy to portray a longing emotion. The Way You Like It is an interesting one, because I interpret it as a story about his struggles with music. “Your heart’s not in it” sounds like a rejection from a music rep or even a self-criticising thought. It really puts all the things he’s said about almost giving up music into perspective.
His second single Give Me Something was up next, and it’s just as fun and soulful as the first time I heard it. Ending the album on a High note (sorry), it’s a love story that looks toward the brighter aspects of the relationship, backed by a beating drum and gorgeous pianos.
The album was wonderful, as I hoped it would be. It had a few surprising twists that kept me interested and shone with the uniqueness that has showed us who Jarryd James really is.
Thirty One is available now via Universal Music Australia.
We’re just ahead of the drop of Jarryd James’ highly anticipated debut album Thirty-One in September. Still so much time to go, but we have some good news!
He’s released a third single Regardless featuring Julia Stone. This is the follow-up to his previous two singles Something To Give and Do You Remember?, which he released earlier this year.
James toured with Angus and Julia Stone during the summer, so this collab is no surprise. They certainly have great chemistry, musically-speaking. James’ falsetto and Stone’s sweet, yet husky vocals merge with the combination of piano and chilled out beats to create an all-round silky track. Co-produced by Joel Little, the track premiered Good Nights with Linda Marigliano a couple of days ago and has already being met with so much praise.
“She can’t be here tonight,” James said, before he performed the track on day two of Splendour In The Grass. “I’m just going to sing her parts in a female voice… even though I already do sing like that,” he joked.
Thirty-One is said to feature more collaborations with Malay, Pip Norman and Matt Corby. If you’re like me and can’t wait to listen to the rest of the album, pre-order it now. I know there’s quite a few keen beans out there. The two sold-out tours speak for themselves.
James is also well-aware of his rise to stardom. From his conversation with Veronica and Lewis, he seems humbled by the fact. “It was cool to see how people reacted to the stuff because I really wasn’t sure if people would embrace it or not but they seemed to and that was super nice.”
Thirty-One will be available on September 11th.