"['Another Century'] is about the heartbreaking realization that,
regardless of how relentless you are about pursuing it, it's impossible to
witness every single thing that life has to offer during your time here on
Earth."
It was not meant to go any further into the top-10 on the radio (Billboard Country Airplay) chart once it had reached number 11 on May 2, 2024. But 'Fearless (The Echo)' had already stayed for an incredible 66 weeks on the charts. A fact that speaks for the overall acceptance of Jackson Dean's second single from his debut album "Greenbroke". At the same time, however, it blocked the way for new music, which would probably have halted its ascent.
In order not to keep fans waiting any longer for new music, it was decided not to release a third single from the first album, which was released way back in March of 2022. Instead Jackson Dean's second studio album was eventually released on September 6, 2024.
With the project "On The Back Of My Dreams", the 24-year-old artist from the US state of Maryland builds on his first album. Not only does he impresses once again with his distinctively raspy voice and powerful rock elements taylor-made for big live shows, but also as a songwriter. Primarily written with producer Luke Dick, all 13 songs were co-written by Jackson Dean.
"These songs are operating at the extreme ends of what they are and embody a characteristic that not only lives within me, but within us all", he tries to describe the theme of the album on musicrow.com. And via his label Big Machine he adds: "Each of these songs were written from a single frame of life, almost as vignettes, drawn from daydreams, nightmares and everything in between."
Consequently these songs revolve around the eternal search for happiness and fulfillment, as well as for meaning and understanding. Inspired by his childhood dog, 'Big Blue Sky' marks the hopefull and passionate beginning of the journey:
There, I met an old dog who hadn't lost all of his fight.
He did not say where he was going,
but what he said, he said it just like a poet.
I got that big blue sky on my mind,
running like I still got time on my side.
Dying just to see it, living just to breathe it,
have I just been dreaming or is it somewhere,
somewhere underneath that big blue sky?
The bluesy 'Duct Tape Heart' becomes a stab at trying to capture the search for meaning and happiness in love with all its obstacles. The emotional wounds along the way get bandaged and torn open again by quick fixes of adhesive tape.
That long haul kind that always shines and never peels.
Until I find my one and only, I'll pass lonely in the dark,
and just slap another strip on my duct tape heart.
The quiet 'Talkin' To Backroads' deals with an often times loney search. What sounds like a classic country theme about dirt roads is more than that. Because the song makes them placeholders for memories and lets them become companions on the walk through life: that red dirt, it listens, knows who you're missing, hears you admitting that you're flesh and bone.
With driving guitars and heavy drums in the chorus, 'Daddy Raised' pulls the listener out of their seats. It's an unusual way to acknowledge one's roots when one's father hasn't tried to stay off drinks or fights and one realizes that the apple doesn't fall too far from the tree.
The persussion-driven 'Long Goodbye' attempts to reframe a hopeless on-off relationship into a long goodbye: don't you worry if thе cowboy rides away, he'll be riding back around when the sun come down the next day.
Even the stylistically most traditional song on the album 'Real Real' is on the lookout for something real. In best country lyricism, it skilfully plays with the various meanings of real:
with some real good whiskey when the real goes wrong.
Hope I still feel twenty when I'm real, real old,
I may not get it all, but man I hope I get real, real close.
The somehow accidental center piece of the project is the current single 'Heavens to Betsy'. It's a song that Jackson Dean started playing in his live shows before there was even a studio recording of it. From there, the track found its way onto the live album "Live at the Ryman", which was released in April of 2024.
It's a song whose full depth only opens up once you've heard the lyrics with all their allusions. "I've watched tears fall to this song", Jackson Dean tells musicrow.com. "It's crazy to see how much love it’s gotten and how much people, in and outside of the industry, believe in it. It's songs of this subject matter that make you look in the mirror and think about what you want."
'Heavens To Betsy' tells the moving story of an alcoholic father who looks down from heaven and only hopes to receive forgiveness for his life and the consequences of it from his daughter Betsy. The title uses the old CB radio terminology from the 1980s.
I don't know if you can hear me.
But up here you're coming clear as a bell.
Now heavens to Betsy,
I finally quit the drinking,
'cause I hated that my demons put you through hell.
they'd ever let a sinner like me in,
and I know I didn't do
enough watching over you,
but I will until I see you again.
According to Jackson Dean, the song serves as a watershed for the project: "The front half is the lighter side and then 'Heavens to Betsy' splits it right down the middle before the second half turns darker", he emphasizes at entertainment-focus.com.
Hence we get passed by a lonely 'Train' next and the profound ambiguity of 'Free':
Free is just a riddle in the middle of your mind.
And free is just another word that lonely people say,
just to keep from saying lonely and to take the pain away.
'Sweet Appalachia' describes the harmonious nature of the Appalachian Mountains and at the same time it deals with one's own mortality. Jackson Dean's favorite song is the somewhat witchy 'Jane', whose lyrics contain the album title. 'Heaven' seems at first trying to decribe just that. But the cleverly laid trail ultimately leads to the description of a love for a woman. A not entireyl unknown song concept.
The album ends with the thoughtful 'Another Century', which remains acoustic until it explodes at the end of the four-and-a-half minute track. Again, transience plays a central role. In an interview with entertainment-focus.com, Jackson Dean explains the central chorus of the song: "There's a song from the band Arcade Fire called 'My Body is a Cage' and I liked the beauty of that a lot and it inspired me to think about the fact that I was born in the year 2000 and I will most likely die within this same century, it will be all I have."
'cause you just can't forget that one day we all disappear.
Yeah, I was born the dawn of this age,
but I won't see another century in this cage.
"On The Back Of My Dreams" is an intense and impressive album. Jackson Dean makes it so by dedicating it to an ever-present searching in all of our lives, shaping it with his charismatic voice and powerful rock elements. That way, the project has become a bit like his live performances, of which he says: "We're walking this (generations-old, rock 'and 'n' roll) authenticity-defined tightrope and not fall off. When the audience realizes that we're exactly what they thought we were as a band, they willingly get into the palm of our hands and we take them on a ride that always feels like it's going harder and doesn't let up!"
Comments
Post a Comment