Back in August we introduced the self-titled debut from jer on bud tapes, a record which saw Portland‘s Jeremy Murphy step out solo after a long while in the local scene in bands such as Riled and Chain. Having amassed a collection of songs recorded himself with some vocals from wife Teal Bluestone, Murphy travelled to Philadelphia to mix them with Nathan Tucker of Strange Ranger and Cool Original, and “the result,” as we put it, “offers a distinctively personal statement from an artist finally in total creative control. Where authentic sincerity is achieved by mixing lo-fi bedroom sensibilities with the polish of indie pop.”
Opener ‘Amanda’ captures the mood of the jer project perfectly, where the track’s DIY spirit remains intact as the sound blooms into something far richer than the initial notes might suggest. The vocals are similarly sincere in tone, sitting somewhere between John K. Samson and You Won’t, and managing to evoke larger themes and questions through the most quotidian of images. Be it the big slice pizza (or lack thereof) in ‘Amanda’, the repetitive grind of ‘Pinocchio’ or the daily unease of ‘Ashtray’. The latter is typical of how jer manages to take such things and rework them into a form of compassion, as though in giving voice and credence to those small moments of a day is to empathise more deeply.
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From this grounding, the jer sound is is free to move off at tangents, both in terms of style and substance. ‘Firetruck’ rings with a crystal clear clarity, detailing a body in the street and disgruntled emergency services cleaning up, while ‘Landmarks’ is bathed in tape hiss and drifts with a lazy rhythm which ratchets up slowly but never quite manages to escape its languid tone. All to be followed by ‘High Horse’, one of the most upbeat and urgent tracks on the record, the heartfelt ‘Portland, CA’ and almost Dylan-esque ‘Crown’.
‘Cranberries’ is perhaps the album’s most inventive track, and in many ways feels like the heart around which the others take shape. Despite clocking in at less than two minutes, the song takes the listener on a journey spanning between the cosmos to the wild west, leaning into the lo-fi aesthetic to sound like something between a daydream and a secret sung out loud. That is, a love song which leaves all of the wonder, strangeness and insecurity in.
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jer is out now via bud tapes and available from Bandcamp.
cover photo by jordan krinsky