Jesse Sykes and the Sweet HereafterLike, Love, Lust, and the Open Halls Of The Soul
(02.2007, Barsuk)
6.5/10
Like, Love, Lust and the Open Halls of the Soul is the first true exposure I have had to the notorious singer/songwriter Jesse Sykes. On first listen I had a hard time accepting the fact that it's a female singing. Sykes has a sort of Rod Stewart mixed with Vashti Bunyan quality to her voice. I know that sounds really bad. Rod Stewart isn't the epiphany of good music by any hipster standard, but somehow Sykes works it. It's breathy, masculine, mournful and weary and placed over a backdrop of alt country/psych folk acoustics. The subsequent sound is a haunting lounge sound that would fit well in any eerie, smokey, dim bar setting. It has an alluring sound, but the beautiful quality gets slightly monotonous throughout the album. It's hard for me to listen to an entire whispered album, and her enticing voice starts to sound a little cheesy and irksome, full to the brim with forced loneliness. After repeat listens, the one thing that drew me to this album, her voice, ended up being the thing that kept it from having much replay value. It's a solid album and is worth a listen, but it's not going to change your life. It's decent, but forgettable.
-Sassigrass
Jesse Sykes and the Sweet Hereafter - "The Air Is Thin"
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