Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Artist: Adams, Jesse
Label: Self-released
Release: 2012
Runtime: 40:36
Rating: 4.5/5
Jesse Adams is an American musician, producer, arranger and multi-instrumentalist. Since the age of thirteen he has been exploring his considerable artistic talents for musical expression. He has always been a big fan of musical variety and experimentation. He loves dabbling in all kinds of genre elements, from electronica and ambient to hip-hop, acoustic sound structures, metal, alternative rock and so on…. So it’s no surprise that individual original tracks by this musician can fuse several genres. In 2009 Jesse put out his first studio document, the EP »Help Yourself«, a collection of original demos and instrumentals. His newer original work, though, features more of the musician’s own vocals. Jesse is in fact a very solid vocalist, and he’s right at home with rhythmic poetry too, though he steers clear of it entirely on »All Things Considered«.
»All Things Considered« is actually this musician’s studio debut! Jesse has also been working for years with the European, or more precisely Slovenian, musical »wonder« and guitar virtuoso Grega Habič from Jesenice, on whose studio albums »Self Destruct Sequence« (2009) and »Open Heart Surgery« (2011) he has so far contributed as vocalist, guitarist and keyboardist. On this debut, Grega Habič returns the favor to Jesse Adams. Interestingly, the two musicians are closely connected in their musical philosophy and the way they perceive music! In the studio they approach sound manipulation in a remarkably similar way, and the same goes for putting arrangements together. It’s not far-fetched to suspect they must be reading each other’s minds when it comes to inspired ideas! Both of them have also caught the cry of the new-age trends. That means each of them is able to create an entire solo studio album entirely on their own and, in the production, give the impression that a whole band is playing on it, which really should be one of the basic artistic goals of any performer. You won’t realize the drums are completely programmed (probably in Q-Base) until you start reading the foreword in this CD’s booklet.
In line with the opening paragraph of this review, Jesse has in fact put out an album of multifaceted vistas of musical expression. Perhaps the most fitting description of »All Things Considered« is that it’s a document of a self-made art rock stance, incomparable to the acts of this solar system. Down The Line is a lazy album opener. A track rooted in blues tradition, where the guitar ornaments at the start throw in a faint whiff of Southern rock, and the smeared, massive collage of backing in the sonic picture really stirs things up, effectively wrapping itself around the chorus and theatrically deepening the reach of Jesse Adams’ vocals. The musician mostly sticks to mid to lower registers in his vocal melodies, which also suits the color of Jesse’s voice best. The vocal delivery doesn’t hide a »manly« approach, which gives the songs the character of the modern mattresses in use today among American post-grunge and alternative metal bands. The way the vocals are delivered gives you the feeling that Jesse Adams is also a fan and worshipper of the elemental rawness of »grunge« music.
The sensitivity, power and know-how to develop effective sound manipulation seasoned with programmed sound loops get confirmed on the album for the first time by the dark track Stale. In it Jesse Adams proves he has an innate feel for building graduated escalations of mood. Grega Habič adds his own with an excellent guitar solo in the outro of the song, which deepens Adams’ feel for the intelligent placement of a strong dose of artistic originality. One Shot lifts the dark mood of the album’s start. It’s a riff-wound track led by Habič’s metalized gallop, while the verse is built on a lively rock n’ roll drive. This track underlines the sarcastic streak of Jesse Adams’ musical philosophy as an artist, and with its genuinely goofy theatrics it works phenomenally in shaking up the dynamics of the moods across »All Thing Considered«.
The Circus Left Town is an instrumental that could easily have landed on any of Grega Habič’s solo studio releases. The excellent metal riff driving the core of the track is more than tailor-made for Grega, who in this fascinating instrumental gets the most out of his guitar ornaments and machine-gun soloing, hitting his artistic peak, all the way to the max. This track reeks of progressive guitar rock, the kind that would make even guitar giants like Joe Satriani and Steve Vai roll their eyes. It’s one of the album’s highlights, and with its atmosphere it once again turns the album fully on its head. In a positive sense, of course, a brilliant statement!
The personal, confessional note glows intensely again in the excellent DNA. This is the kind of song that all grunge fans will love. Plenty of grunge bands would sound in tune with this fully acoustic, arranged track in their unplugged versions. It’s marked by a melancholic vocal melody, where Jesse’s heartfelt vocal approach, aimed at a fresh take on the mid registers, carries all the conviction – so think of the manly vocal range of Alice In Chains, Soundgarden, Stone Temple Pilots. It’s not the same, but it evokes energetic parallels. In this track, a freshly wound solo by Grega Habič, drawing this time on blues foundations, deepens the theatricality. The solo is backed by a metalized riff, which effectively spins the mood toward a new sphere. This is followed by the sad instrumental Slave, which casts a spell over the listener with genuine melancholy. It opens totally innocently, in an acoustic manner, then turns into a riff that stirs up feelings similar to The Circus Left Town, except that Jesse’s vocals join in on Slave. A track with a special stance and the character of alternative metal. Trendy and very likable. The drama is deepened again by masterfully placed patterns of sound loops.
Something To Hold On To opens with Habič’s acoustic guitar underlaid with a stereo chorus effect, then flows into one of the finest vocal numbers on the album, making it the prime candidate for release as a standalone single. A track where the melodic character on the album flares up most intensely. Once again Grega Habič confirms his musical genius with one of the most beautifully laid-down guitar solos, which sustain an extraordinary sentiment in the song and tantalizingly feed the listener by deepening the atmospheric reach of the track, which flows magnificently into the final verse-chorus round! We fans of Grega Habič’s music already know the track Pig very well, since it appeared in a collaboration with Jesse on Grega’s solo studio album »Open Heart Surgery« (2011). In Pig, which in energy and expression evokes the feel of The Circus Left Town and Slave, you get the answer to why Jesse and Grega complement each other so well as musical talents. This is the progressively fractured moment of the album, where the exceptional, virtuosic expressive power of Grega Habič’s musical talents steps to the front again. Of course, Jesse’s contribution has to be counted in too, doubling the massive wall of backing with his riffing and, with his sparkling ideas, keeping the track’s art character at a highly polished level. It’s one of the liveliest and most artistically provocative moments on »All Things Considered«! To close, and to return to the gloomy ambient of the album’s beginning, we get the darkest track on the album. That’s the title track. It’s built from combined sound effects. Suddenly a rhythmic loop joins in that would readily welcome some hip-hopping, but we never get it! The core of the track rests on a distinctly dark backdrop of programmed arrangements, creating in this instrumental a melody that could easily serve as the soundtrack to some futuristic film of black vistas and total apocalypse.
So Jesse Adams has put out an expressively inspired studio debut that fuses several musical genres. The musician melts them together with finesse and a full flow, in a totally unique way, and the result is an album of self-made art rock culture. On it you’ll witness genre divides coming together, from progressive metal to blues and grunge to old-school rock principles, and his flirtation with elements of post-grunge and alternative metal is fascinating too.
A very important element of Jesse’s debut is the contribution of Grega Habič, whose masterpieces take the lion’s share in making this album so full of movement, endlessly appealing, and in giving its arrangement solutions such an exceptional atmospheric and expressive backdrop. Given that, it wouldn’t be a bad idea for Adams and Habič to join forces as a band or project and put out another album together. It’s chemistry between two charismatic, high-profile musical talents, where such a dialogue guarantees the confessional authenticity of an art one-of-a-kind, with fully effective chemistry in how musical ideas are perceived and how they communicate with each other!
Hence the exceptional, self-made art rock note of the album »All Thing Considered«, which as such proves that the musical universe still holds plenty of undiscovered corners for authentic artistic expression, which needs no copying whatsoever and draws only on the authenticity of talent. And that’s the most an artist of Jesse Adams’ caliber can offer at this point. Given his broad understanding, sensitivity and masterful feel for arranging, combining compactness with effective moods, it’s clear that Adams will deepen his artistic reach even further in the future and define the character of his self-made songwriting sermon with even more maturity. This is a musician who develops and explores himself without brakes, without calculation, going all out! But for that you have to be unburdened and, above all, have the full measure of courage to hold on to »yourself«, not give in to corporations, or simply not throw in the towel too early!
Lineup
Jesse Adams – vocals, guitar, bass guitar, programming, keyboards
Grega Habič – guitar, bass guitar
Production
Jesse Adams
Tracklist
1. Down The Line
2. Stale
3. One Shot
4. The Circus Left Town
5. DNA
6. Slave
7. Something To Hold On To
8. Pig
9. All Things Considered
