Music Review: Goon

If you’re looking for an emotional, world-weary, wise-beyond-his-years, starry-eyed romantic, Tobias Jesso Jr. is your man. At age 29, he is a late bloomer for today’s music industry, yet it is his maturity that brings his music the gravitas and emotional intelligence that makes it so powerful. Throughout his new album Goon, the breadth of Jesso’s relatable world experiences are told in poetic, clear terms by an artist with a true mastery of his craft. The record debuted March 17 and may become one of the best new albums of 2015 that flies completely under the radar because of its unassuming humility and gimmick-less honesty.

Jesso’s influences draw almost exclusively from the lone male piano player and singer whose heyday was in the 1960s and 1970s; but with Jesso and others like him (think Matthew E. White, Father John Misty, James Bay), this breed could be on the verge of making a comeback. There’s something intensely refreshing about the classical revival—no frills, no synth, no bass, just a man and his beautiful voice, smooth piano and emotive acoustic guitar.

The first track on the album, “Can’t Stop Thinking About You,” sets the tone of the album perfectly, and nods stylistically to Jesso’s dominant influences, visionaries like Paul McCartney and Dan Wilson. The rolling piano, lilting vocals and romantic melody evokes the simple beauty of a new crush. The sense of possibility he evokes bodes well for the rest of the album. “Just a Dream,” towards the end of the record, contrasts it with the sweet satisfaction and comfort of an established relationship, and the listener may find him or herself hoping that the “baby” to whom he refers is the girl he once admired from afar. Jesso continues to explore and express music’s most tried-and-true theme, love, but is never cliché, a feat for this genre.

Heartbreak, love’s inevitable companion, also gets its moment on Goon. “How Could You Babe” sounds like the soundtrack to the low point in a romantic comedy, when the audience finds the jilted heroine gazing moodily out of a rain-soaked bus window after some tragedy of bad timing has caused her to part from her lover. This could be nauseating, but because of the raw honesty of his lyrics and the spot-on emotional sensibility, it instead evokes the classic poignancy of Bob Dylan. “Just waiting for the day when I can say/that you were mine again,” Jesso croons of an ex he is watching move on without him, and our hearts break with his. “Can We Still Be Friends” is his reflective answer to this darker period; after meditation and time to heal, he builds a pleasant groove on drum hooks and a cheerier key that feels fully fresh and interesting.

“Without You” is one of the most strikingly beautiful tracks on the album. Not only is it gorgeously written, it touches an emotional chord that is as much high-school-gym-slow-dancing as it is a serious love ballad. “How could you love me?/I reach higher every day/ Nothing changes/ no it all just stays the same/ I could hold on, I could breathe without you/ there is no future I want to see without you/I just don’t know who I would be without you/ but there is nothing out there for me without you.” This track has the simplicity, relatability, and straight-to-the-heart character of a Beatles ballad, deeply felt and genuine and demonstrative of Jesso’s great talent.

“The Wait” and “Just Dream” are weightless gems, reliant on the simple beauty of a plucking acoustic guitar and nothing else. This stripped-down quality is an absolute breath of fresh air in an era of music that is so heavily produced as to obscure this kind of unfiltered musical ability. Like the rest of the album, these tracks are light, easy, and as natural as breathing in and out, and as such sound like music that has been around for years but you’re only just discovering.

With "Hollywood," Jesso reminds us that he is following his dreams and seeking a place in the world like anyone with. Here, he plays out the role of a starry-eyed dreamer with the hope and wide-eyed innocence of one much younger. The brass horns enter with an almost imperceptible softness and give his melody depth and dimension as he worries, “I think I’m gonna die in Hollywood.” The song halts so fully at times that you can’t be sure if the song is over, but Jesso picks it up again with a untaught and hypnotic ease. Let Jesso draw you into his familiar world of dreaming, love and heartbreak with his quiet, unassuming and exquisitely wrought masterwork. Goon is a truly enchanting classical revival that’ll leave you weak at the knees.