The Jayhawks – XOXO
Sham/Thirty Tigers – 10 July 2020
XOXO is The Jayhawks’ eleventh album and their first new material since 2016’s Paging Mr Proust. It’s also the first to feature writing and vocal contributions from all four members(Gary Louris, Marc Perlman, Tim O’Reagan, Karen Grotberg). Inevitably, it is relatively wide-ranging in its musical moods though the central pillar is the way it fuses American roots and 60s British pop.
Recorded over two weeks, with the band living together in a big house in the secluded Minnesota studio grounds, it exudes an air of camaraderie and togetherness. The album opens with Louris and O’Reagan trading lead vocals on the Louris/Perlman penned This Forgotten Town, a mid-tempo, descending chords, jangled guitar number. The song has hints of Dylan and Petty that would seem to be about gold rush disillusionment (“In the land of milk and honey/That’s where I laid my claim/But every day that I lost money/It brought me closer to the grave“).
One of three solo composition by O’Reagan (who shares co-writes on two others) the rocking Dogtown Days is the first to call the British invasion to mind, opening with a drum riff that evokes The Spencer Davis Group before plunging into Who territory. In complete contrast, Living In A Bubble, one of only two solo Louris numbers, starts out echoing the opening to Killer Queen before transforming into a Nilsson-esque number. Featuring John Jackson on mandolin, it addresses the ratings-driven news cycle and life’s “just another day at the zoo“.
The first of two Grotberg numbers comes with her singing Ruby, a reflective piano ballad that, featuring Eric Heywood on pedal steel, is more Lennon than Norah Jones. The second being the Emmylou/Band flavoured and violin-shaded downbeat Across My Field (“The empty pages and these fading dreams/Will push you to the edge“).
Crosby Stills & Nash’s intermingling influences surface on Little Victories and the mandolin-coloured story-song Bitter Pill – “Maddie found another town/But her past followed her around“. Likewise, on the scuffed guitar indie rock of Guided By Voices and the acerbic Society Pages– “He’s a clown in cashmere/He’s a crowd pleaser/You can never trust a man/Who can’t finish his beer“.
Elsewhere, opening with and featuring Sgt Pepper-echoes, set to a marching beat, Homecoming is a Louris number about climate change (“stockholders count their profits/While blocking out the sun“) hung upon cascading chord progressions and psychedelic-folk backing harmonies, while Perlman. Louris and O’Reagan co-write Illuminate continues that trippy soundscape on a theme of false idols that references religious cult leader Jim Jones who led the infamous 1978 Jonestown mass suicide of “all the wayward sons and all the faithful daughters“.
The album officially ends with the acoustic Simon & Garfunkle shaded strum of the mortality-themed swayer Down To The Farm and O’Reagan’s spare fingerpicked loss and regret-stained Looking Up Your Number (“I see you there in the dark in the light/I want you gere in my arms in my life“). Still, there’s also a special edition featuring three bonus tracks, the churchy organ-based The Jewel of the Trimbelle, Then You Walked Away which is pure late 60s baroque folk-pop and, again nodding to The Band, the piano-accompanied Hypocrite’s Lament.
By expanding the different members’ contributions and embracing their influences, in both looking forward and looking back, the album also expands its appeal and musical diversity, reaching out to a wider audience while never disappointing the faithful. The title translates as kisses and hugs, may I suggest you open your arms and pucker up for its embrace.
Watch Living In A Bubble (Live in St. Paul):