(2023) Darren Jessee - Central Bridge    



Review:
Darren Jessee wrote and recorded most of his third solo album, Central Bridge, at his home in Durham, North Carolina, after the COVID-19 pandemic took hold. The title is a reference not to a place but to the various connections -- lifelines -- explored in the songs, including those to people and to nature. Retaining the hushed delivery and subtly textured arrangements of his prior solo records, it was recorded with the same key contributors, namely producer/mixer/instrumentalist Alan Weatherhead and strings specialist Trey Pollard. A relatively brief, nine-song set, it gets right to the point on opener "Love and Thanks" (which thanks, among others, "Joni," "Keith," "Judy," and "Bob"). Like most of the other songs here, despite seeming to come in at the level of a warm exhale, its full-band arrangement includes not only fingerstyle acoustic guitar and spacey keys but eventual electric guitar, electric bass, and drums. There's a little more bounce in the step of a track like "Getting Close," whose relatively driving chorus delivers further gratitude ("You make it all right for me, babe"), and Stuart Bogie guests on saxophone on the likewise affectionate "Sunbeam," which paints a poolside Saturday scene. The latter track even breaks out a few classic "do do do" vocals. It's not all sunshine and saxophones, however, as Jessee offers a fair share of melancholy on Central Bridge, including "Baby Don't Love You," which combines more-complex chords with phrases like "jukebox moaning in the dark" and "a mountainside of lost parts" on its way to ending up alone with no phone messages ("same as you"). Similarly, the piano-led "Mirage" begins with the sentiment "I loved you even when I was ruining it," before Jessee ends the album on the strings-embellished "I Live in Your Old Hometown," which searches for connections since lost. Central Bridge is relentlessly tender, though, managing to amplify memories, detailed settings, and nuanced emotions without raising his voice above a gentle murmur. — allmusic





Track List:
01 - Love and Thanks
02 - Will That Be Enough
03 - Getting Close
04 - Wild Ascending Blue
05 - Riding the Horses
06 - Baby Don't Love You
07 - Sunbeam
08 - Mirage
09 - I Live in Your Old Hometown


Media Report:
Genre: chamber pop
Country: Durham, North Carolina, 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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