Hiss Golden Messenger
Jump for Joy
Merge Records
2023
Since the birth of Revelators Sound System in 2020, the dubby stepchild to Hiss Golden Messenger, MC Taylor’s main band has sometimes played to a weirder groove, which continues on Jump for Joy. Rather than feeling rough around the edges, it feels like a previously untapped level of oddness is at play. One that doesn’t leaven the inherent positivity of the new album but illustrates that beyond the good vibes, there is still a touch of darkness residing on the edge of town.
Recorded over the space of two weeks in the fall of 2022, the songs were composed in the free moments during what was an almost year-long tour. Living the role of an itinerant musician, he and the band played for audiences ranging from 200 to 4,000. Sometimes, they played dingy dives, sometimes venerable music halls, while Taylor realized along the way that he was “Robbing Peter to pay Paul, then robbing Paul to pay Peter back.” Despite it all, he began to realize he was, deep in his heart, a happy wanderer.
From the oddly angled chime opening 20 Years and a Nickel, Taylor looks at the 25 years spent in the rock ‘n’ roll game. The band finds a groove that moves from mournful piano to a sound more playful with a slight New Orleans funk edge and a guitar sound emanating from the Jerry Garcia songbook. As the song takes on a more hopeful attitude, the beginnings of a sort of understanding emerge that while it’s been 20 years and a nickel, Taylor is still trying to write his masterpiece.
In his search for the perfect light at the end of the tunnel, he’s joined by Aoife O’Donovan and Amy Helm on Nu-Grape, as well as Fruit Bats leader and one-third of Bonny Light Horseman, Eric D. Johnson, joining with O’Donovan on Wondering. The beat moves, the organ plays riffs that stir the air while the three sing a chorus together that, despite lyrics that detail creeping through other people’s houses, offers the triumphant conclusion, “I’m still here – just can’t quit wondering/I’m still here with my back to the wondering.”
As the leader of a band that has often humped their own gear from place to place, Nu-Grape ends up being less about soda than one’s place in the cosmos. Keyboards bounce, while the guitars have a sturdy strut. “Cutting stone ain’t easy, but it’s how I earn my way/ Some want doves and marigolds, give me a stone that says/”Don’t cry, it’s only a joke,” does that feel true enough for you?” while the chorus admits, “I’m just a nail in the house of the universe.”
It may not be the best seat on the planet, but at least it’s a seat.
From a bed in New Orleans, Taylor wakes up in a sense of awe, “Woke up this morning, My God I felt happy/ What a strange sensation/I’ve had luck beyond measure.” Yet, there is always a nagging voice asking one of those unanswerable questions, “Taking chances/ If you lost it all/ Can you love what’s left“? How do you answer that one? It would seem for Taylor, at the end of the day, it’s an unqualified yes, because that’s all you have left.
Hiss Golden Messenger have stumbled upon a weird kind of alchemy; through their sense of magic, they are able to bind belief with reality in a way that lets you know there is only one choice: Jump for Joy.