Music Existence Because of Music, We Exist
More than any other performers in the folk-rock, modern singer/songwriters have been all the rage this autumn, and though some of my peers might be inclined to disagree with me, I don’t think that Jake Thistle fits the conventional profile of his peers in this movement. While his new single “Brooklyn Can Wait” has the same ingredients that we’ve seen in similarly stylized artists, I hear none of the pretentiousness in his sound, and more explicitly his lyricism, which has become incredibly commonplace in his less-than-erudite contemporaries, both in and out of the underground, for that matter.
“Brooklyn Can Wait” is a multidimensional ballad that seeks to engage us not only through its poignant pastoral poetry but also via its vivid instrumental textures, evocative tonality, and richly appointed master mix. Production quality isn’t everything, especially in a genre like folk music, but it does help to have the kind of polish that we find pretty much around every single turn contained in this song and the music video.
This single feels like an identity track for Thistle, and the companion video made in support of its release this fall encapsulates everything that his general vibe as presented in his music is all about. There’s a rootsy element to its rhythm that is flanked with a poppy hook in the middle of all the controlled chaos in the string play.
It’s not as deliberate a construction as some of the other songs in his present-day discography, but I wouldn’t hold this against it when taking into account the experimental design of his last LP specifically. Some audiences might take issue with the overwhelming amount of components that it takes to make the groove in the percussion come alive in the chorus, but that withstanding, “Brooklyn Can Wait” is still a freewheeling ballad that doesn’t appear to have been fashioned exclusively for the mainstream crowd. It has moments where it feels like somewhat of a throwback hipster piece, but never in a manner that comes across as trite or uneven, which has sadly been the case for a lot of the new singles and albums I’ve been reviewing out of the underground this month.
I love where Jake Thistle’s experimentations are taking him, and with any luck, “Brooklyn Can Wait” will be the start of an exciting new era in his career as a songwriter. He’s grown a lot since making his debut, and despite the limited attention that he’s received from the press outside of the underground circuit, I think that he’s on a trajectory with this single that will take him out of obscurity and into the limelight once and for all. He has more energy than I was expecting in this performance, and when juxtaposed with all of the emotionality that he’s pouring into this track, there’s never a moment in which we feel like we’re listening to something removed from that special vulnerability found in singer/songwriter works almost exclusively. New York’s best borough might be able to wait, but audiences cannot when it comes to anticipating new music of this quality from Jake Thistle.
Hannah Weeks
