By Jack Rafferty
There’s certain albums that just fuckin’ flatten you the first time you listen to them. Former National Youth Poet Laureate, Kara Jackson, is an absolutely phenomenal songwriter. Her lyrics are one of a kind. Perhaps that would go without saying given her acclaim in poetry already, but I think it is important to distinguish the mediums to a degree, and give Kara credit where credit is due, as extreme talent in one does not always translate to the other.
Themes of the difficulties of love, not just for others, but for oneself, and how the process of allowing yourself to feel worthy of love is a difficult and nonlinear one. Sometimes it comes at the expense of not trying to please others in cycles of harm or dependence, or rejecting patriarchal standards of how her identity as feminine is defined.
I’m not a liquidated asset
I’m a sharper than a jewel
What kind of miner does that make you?
When I’m the gold and you’re just a fool.
The melodies and cadence she elects to use bring so much character to every line of every song. There is so much subtle detail in every moment to try to absorb, and it all comes together beautifully, with no single element ever attempting to draw too much attention to itself over Kara’s incredible voice and words. The music creates soundscapes that are simultaneously subdued and lush and everlastingly gorgeous. A vocal melody that I especially loved is on the track “brain,” which really highlights Kara’s range and the richness of her voice. In it she sings
Sleep isn’t cheap
And your love is no currency…
If your fear is what comes first
You’ll run from love you deserve
I’ve got so much fear inside
You’ll give me yours
And I’ll give you mine.
I love the ways in which Kara bluntly addresses the weaknesses of men in patriarchal society. Highlighting their emotional detachment, and how that cultivates in them a sense of insecurity, of a lack of empathy, of an inability to reckon with the consequences of their actions. This is highlighted well in many tracks, but I love these lines from “rat,”
California calls him by his collar
His waves were ill-behaved, so now hе doesn’t bother
Shook the country from him likе a cub clawing its father
Couldn’t buy compassion ‘cause it’d cost him 40 dollars…
What he wouldn’t give to have some grits to start his morning
Fascinated by the face of the woman who warms them
Rat has made his bath and this is one he’ll surely drown in
Imitating tales of cowboy trails and traveling men
Hasn’t satisfied a single one of his new women
The one he left alone is in their home and busy hexing…
His brain hallucinating, his ego in his chest
His friends, they never told him it’d cost him close to death
At home, his woman carves another kind of casket
The kind he gladly climbs and closes himself in.
One of the more powerful moments on the album is the title track, which finds Kara reflecting on mortality, lamenting the powerlessness we feel in the ungraspable presence and indifference of death,
I’ve buried old and young
I’ve watched them lower a saint
We’re only waiting our turn
Call that living?
Frankly, I wish I could include every line of the album here, as each is deserving of it. I could go on and on but at a certain point my words become redundant and don’t do the album justice anyways. Kara Jackson is truly, truly something special. This album is masterful, and I eagerly await what she decides to do next.
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