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Overall Album Impressions
jacket.’s “Volume III: Human” reflects all the facets of being human and the contradictions and intricacies therein through a carefully woven tapestry of sound and emotion. The way in which jacket. brings his layered and nuanced approach to synth-based music together with a cast of excellent members of the synth music scene creates beautiful atmospheres and enthralling feelings.
A hallmark of jacket.'s music which appears on “Volume III: Human” is the way in which different synth sounds combine to create texture and mood. He carefully considers the different sonic interactions and how different instruments evoke emotion to best represent the different musical tracks. The addition of other instruments like electric guitar and piano helps to give new auditory depths to the pieces as they unfold.
Musical themes which are full of complexity and richness or another defining feature of “Volume III: Human.” Each melody delineates an aspect of human expression and experience, moving through moments of knowing pain to great affection and gentleness. As a result, the main idea of exploring what it means to be us is given breadth and strength through well-composed thematic motifs.
The range of guest artists on this album is another outstanding aspect of the music. jacket. brought together some absolutely talented musicians to help craft the sound and feelings he is seeking. Each individual musician contributes their own fresh and distinctive sound to the songs and adds another layer of lively and compelling sensations.
My Favourite Tracks Analyzed
“Human (Intro)” glides with tentative sensations, the background eerie and soft as wandering sounds drift out through the blue vastness around them, exhaling with simple lightness. In the music, a hint of uncertainty reflects our human condition and sets the stage for this album. Haunted notes float and disappear into the cavernous spaces surrounding them.
Plaintive calm drifts into wide-open spaces with a melodic line as “Calamity” floats on a synth that exudes emptiness tinged by gentle sensations. Rhythmic motion adds powerful guidance to tones that paint images of a space full of presences flowing like spectral water. Spangled synth splashes and the atmosphere shines softly.
Darkness surges from percussive weight and the melodic pattern transmits hurt on a tide of sapphire brilliance. A rushing tumble of notes cascades in luminous phosphorescence as the underpinnings thunder.
Flickering sounds trip and fall headlong into a wordless voice crying with passion and broken feeling. A glittering world unfolds around me, evoking complex internal landscapes like thousands of shattered mirrors. Flashing fragments distantly hover above the shadows below before silence falls.
“Voicemails” opens with telephone sounds and intense, sharp-edged arpeggios that mix with a voicemail message, adding to the atmosphere. The piano-like synth glides with glassy smoothness and the guitar flows with caressing feelings while strings sing warmly before Beachdolls’ gripping, yet honey sweet voice soars with the echoing piano.
All of the remembrance and bereavement pours out from the vocals with ferocious feeling, driving deeply into my heart. Beachdolls’ affectionate and broken-hearted voice permeates the song above the crisp percussion. jacket. creates a melody shaded with ardent feelings while the vocals climb with overpowering need as the saxophone adds a yearning gut punch.
After flying out unaccompanied for a moment, Beachdolls’ voice mingles with the thundering underlayer and sobbing sax before the piano slips, creating aching gentleness before the song ends.
Admitting she was distant, our storyteller explains that she was scared of being hurt and comments, "I'm not amazing at commitment." She wrote and erased a message for the song’s subject because "you left your coat here and it's hanging in the closet." Never thinking the other person would leave her there alone, she's "listening to your voicemails on my phone," as she asks if the other person wants to hear her say that she’s “the one that got away."
"Maybe I just needed reflection, looking in the mirror, see you there behind me.” The narrator wonders if the song’s subject misses her and if they'd ever change their mind and move back to the city. Feeling sorry that she didn't see what was happening, she wishes the other person would call her. To conclude, she says "now I'm pleading and when I reach out, I hope you hear me, I'm desperately yours."
With snapping percussion and reverberant synth, “Never Dancing Alone” comes alive as the percussion launches with energizing vigour and an arpeggio leaps with excitement. The drum beat is forceful while crystalline chimes create lightness above the propelling weight before LIAMLEON threads the melody with the affection in the words.
A bouncing synth exudes warming radiance while LIAMLEON conveys deep caring. The rhythm rebounds as drifting vocals evoke hopeful progress and the main melody summons up escape and celebration. As the chorus creates a feeling of home, chimes sparkle and the track comes to an end.
As the storyteller and the song's subject run through the night together, everything feels right. He says, "I don't know where we're heading but I'm holding on tight." They're both caught up in the moment and taking everything "higher than before." He knows it won't always get better so he’s "chasing light in a world so cold, turning memories into something gold."
Despite the place being a "beautiful mess" it still feels like home to our narrator and his companion. As long as they're there, they'll never be dancing alone. He can feel "the midnight air running through my hair" and it imbues him with another sort of energy. He can take himself and the other person to this place and "we’ll stay this way forever, caught in the moment, making it stronger than before."
“Reverie” grows with a hushed voice that spills out tender sensation as slipping, blurry notes weave an expansive background before propulsive percussion throbs and the vocals tremble with painful expression as the interlocking synth transmits a feeling of sailing and drifting above heavy underpinnings.
Vibrating tones paint an image of filtered light moving through misty air. The rhythm creates giant motion while the vocals cry out with a pang of hurt. The main melody rises like a thermal before gliding into a cascading pattern, descending and swooping smoothly as the towering background moves. I find the balance of touching emotion and force enjoyable as it unfolds and the track ends on trumpeting tones.
Flitting tones spiral as “Change” rapidly accelerates into a pattern of hypnotic notes that swirl like autumn leaves as the vocals capture complicated love and attraction. A piano skips past and echoing tones support the performer's breathy, compellingly heartfelt performance while propelling percussion lends strength to the diaphanous vocal performance.
Wind sweeps as guitar entangles with metallic precision, shimmering while the breathy vocals and rich piano produce tones of burnished gold. A wordless, elevated vocal pattern dapples like sunlight through the forest canopy as the piano sings with a balletic feeling and the low end dances.
The honesty of the vocals here pulls me into the song. A piano balances uplift and melancholy before the main theme captures a sense of progress and the track slowly fades out.
“Nightfall” slips with calming motion, full of tranquility, as twirling notes unfold in a trance-like line while sharper sounds slash and the drums shudder. An active sonic arc moves outward, touched by creaking bass before the entire track cuts with jagged edges.
Shadows rise with the harsh tones and portent fills the string-like synth, with a theme emphasizing crushing strength before the melody becomes silkier and more majestic, reflecting a midnight hour full of soft moonlight and lurking darkness behind it.
The way in which more unsettling elements are balanced with gentleness attracts me while the peaceful arpeggios spin and laser-like sounds move in. Drums bounce as the bass rips threateningly before a raised, brassy synth calls out and silence falls.
“Hold You Up” brings the evocative tones of the vocalist into play as the percussion adds a slightly uneven beat while hints of synth accent the caressing performance which drives deep love and attraction into me. The resonant harmony gives a beautiful lushness to the song while the drums fall in a dense curtain and speed up.
Now the beat dances with the enlivening synth as the vocalists invoke passion shot through with true understanding. Mingled vocals and synth create enthralling expression, linking my own heart to that of the storyteller.
A saxophone gives a vibrant soul to the song while the singer reaches out with unadulterated warmth. The chorus skips again with lively sensations pouring from the vocals and the saxophone climbing to the sky, unfurling in bright tones before silence falls.
Searching for somewhere to run because "all of my love’s used up" the main character muses that perhaps if the song’s subject runs there too, he won't miss them. He continues, "but if nobody else was here, I'd open up my heart, no fear" before he adds that he’d try to change the parts of himself he knows the other person doesn't like.
Our storyteller reminds the song's subject that he's just like them and "we both know that I'm made to bruise." All he's trying to do is prove to the other person that he knows that "you want me to hold you.” He reaffirms that he can hold them up and that he won't give up.
Having built up a world in his head "where every word is left unsaid," the narrator has been practicing how to let the song’s subject know "things about me I don't show." He wonders what will happen if the other person sees what he keeps hidden as self-doubt makes him ask, "Would you choose to stay or push me away at the end of the day? "
Delicate rain falls on “Oneira” as disembodied voices whisper and pastel tones are guided by huge drums and dense bass. Brilliant flashes leap as a note pattern mingles with a synth that dreams and hovers.
Crystalline sounds create luminosity while a wordless voice summons feelings of levitation and complete relaxation in my mind. The percussion falls away as high notes glisten like diamonds and the guitar jumps forward, transporting the music to a fantastical world as tiny diamonds sparkle and the track exhales to a conclusion.
“Signals” possesses effervescent fragility as it twinkles into life with drums as the main singer's voice blooms over the synths, seeking escape from the current situation. The piano carries a melody which is full of uplifting sensation and a meditative tinge before the lead singer's vocals flow like silk through the arrangement.
The background has a fullness and weight that lifts the vocals up above the piano’s filigreed tones. Percussion is tinged by elegant notes tumbling down as the guitar catches a current of rising air to slide as the wordless vocals create free-flowing liveliness. The track ends with a vibrant piano entangled in solid underpinnings and sounds that wrap around my heart.
Reflecting on the fact that if you’re “day drinking into evening, you need space for breathing” as you try to wash away the pain. Our tale’s teller remains awake at midnight “counting all the star signs, still wide awake in the dark.” She feels a “dead weight in my bones” and adds that they said they’d leave it alone. She points out that they’re “still falling for the same mistakes.”
It’s the same street on another morning and the “same high but a different moment, trying to wash the pain away.” The storyteller might have walked away but “the feeling learned my name, tracing signals in the dark.”
Conclusion
“Volume III: Human” delves into all of the nuances and contradictions of what it means to be a human being. I enjoy the balance of different emotional states with melodic grace and a cast of undeniably excellent musicians who bring their own contributions to the overall sound.
