Dreamy Doo-Wop and Raw Self-Reflection Drift Through the Kaleidoscope of Jacob Tell’s ‘So Much of the Time’ –

Jacob Tell wore the scars of self-flagellation on his sleeve in So Much of the Time, the standout single from his sophomore LP, Hard to Be Human. The dark lyrical themes are tempered by a whimsical twist of 60s psych pop, the kind of wistful theatricality you’d expect to hear drifting from a dimly lit backstreet cabaret stage. That push and pull between bruised confession and off-kilter charm gives the track its beautifully skewed gravity, and it instantly pulls you into Tell’s inner monologue.

By using dreamy doo-wop textures as a form of emotional abstraction, Tell triumphed in his attempt to lay the rawest wounds bare, the kind inflicted by existing in a world where self-directed derision settles in the bones long before anyone else gets close enough to hurt us again. It’s an eccentrically forlorn meditation that taps into the collective desire to revisit a version of ourselves and connections when we weren’t quite so idiosyncratically obscure or tangled up in doubt.

As the barbershop-quartet-esque harmonies drift in and the jangly honeyed melodies wrap themselves around the hazy aura, Tell hands you the perfect sonic space to sit with your own contradictions. You drift, you ache, and you feel that peculiar relief that comes from knowing someone else has given language to the isolation of kicking yourself alone.

The LA-based independent artist continues expanding this world of emotional excavation across the rest of Hard to Be Human, produced by Don Douglass and released through Ekletrik Rekordz. Recording for two follow-up projects is already underway, including the intimate collection Someone to Cry and the classic-song tribute record Under the Influence.

So Much of the Time is now available on all major streaming platforms, including Spotify. 

Review by Amelia Vandergast