Rapid Fire Reviews: Debut Albums with Kara Jackson, @, Rob Grant, & Zulu

Today we're taking quick looks at 4 debut albums from this year. The first two are projects I heard much earlier this year that intrigued me, but I didn't get the chance to talk about until now. The latter two are albums I just felt the need to comment on for reasons that will be clear. 

Why Does The Earth Give Us People To Love? - Kara Jackson

Kara Jackson is an Illinois singer-songwriter who actually debuted as a published poet 4 years before releasing this debut album. She got quite a bit of buzz for this project earlier this year that I couldn't ignore and her writing background is what immediately spoke to me about the project. The record dabbles in the aesthetics of folk and indie in a manner that's honestly often more lo-fi than I anticipated. They often feature these very linear compositions which do good to highlight her as a songwriter even if they don't always create the most compelling journeys possible. Despite the vintage sound of the record and the often abstract lyrical musings, these narratives are quite personal and as a result, quite modern. That framing makes her often quite lethal observations about the world and people around her hit even more raw through the rarely easy-to-digest sound of the record.

Another element of this record that was discussed at large is Kara's voice, which is inarguably impressive. She manages an impressive tightrope walk with vocals that are husky and expressive in a confrontational way. Despite that, she rarely breaks the fragile agreement she has with the record's gentler pieces of instrumentation, though it does happen sometimes. That creates an interesting contrast on the record. Some of its sweeter moments of introspection come on great tracks like brain, the most Angel Olsen thing I've heard this year from anyone not named Angel Olsen. But elsewhere on songs like dickhead blues and the title track there is a much more clear injection of venom, be it specific or universal. One thing I can confidently say against the record is that the format doesn't do Kara any justice. For something this earnest the playful tracklisting packing short songs, interludes, and reprises in between more substantial outings feels like a really strange fit and it's hard to be invested in many of the album's shorter songs. Additionally, I think the length of the album overall does present some hurdles for listeners. At 52 minutes the album's sonic presentation does certainly start to wear down on me as the album goes on even as its quality doesn't wane. All of that comes together to make Why Does The Earth Give Us People To Love? an extremely impressive debut album that flashes a ton of potential. Given the fact that Kara still has so much opportunity to grow artistically and find a presentation style that fits her unique sonic approach better is wildly exciting. I'll be the first one in line waiting to hear what she does next, but in the mean time this is still a very compelling listen. 7.5/10

Mind Palace Music - @

The story of @ became massive folk music critic bait earlier this year. Nearly every discussion of this new fully fleshed out version of the duo's debut album featured the same refrains of the pair sending iMessages back and forth from 100 miles away for the creation of the album. But I think that story resonates with so many because it makes so much sense once you hear the music. The recordings here aren't exactly crisp but they are intimate and often quite cozy despite the simple acoustic presentation. That coziness is maintained through a lot of things from the flustering amateurishness of the vocals almost any time the intensity is dialed up. It also comes through ten fold on the albums bouncier tracks like letters, which absolutely delights with every individual instrumental flourish. Though you can look to the very next song, the Sufjan and AnCo inspired Friendship Is Frequency to see an example of how that can sometimes be misconceived. The album isn't perfect and I find a lot of the shorter songs on the first half of the album more compelling than the longer ones on the back half. For that reason this feels more like a test drive, a proof of concept for an idea that could be pretty compelling when it's all the way fleshed out. There's a lot of talent in this project even if it occasionally feels more dedicated to being quirky than innately compelling. 6.5/10

 Lost At Sea - Rob Grant

Of course I had to talk about this album. In case you didn't know, Rob Grant is Lana Del Rey's father who is clealry using her industry connections to release his debut at nearly 70 years old. Thankfully, this isn't a singer-songwriter album or the 90s Beach Boys monstrosity that it's album cover would have you believe. It's actually a quite reserved, patient, and restrained series of simple piano compositions. They certainly have more poise to them than an average easy-listening outing, but in large part, these tracks really are just the simple piano songs they present as. Lana herself features on a pair of tracks from the record including the title track and the closer Hollywood Bowl, both of which are highlights. Really I listened to and reviewed this album for one reason, I'm known across my entire time as a music critic and really as a person for being a big Lana Del Rey fan. When she makes a rare appearance on someone else's music, I review it. When she collected her studio outtakes into a glorified B-sides project in 2021, I reviewed it. Hell, when she wrote a book of poetry and released spoken word covers of the poems on Audible, I bought and reviewed the entire thing. (Sidenote: if you've never heard her version of Sportcruiser it's an absolute must.) So the least I could do was give her dad's album a few listens and a review. 

I didn't anticipate just how difficult it would be to conjure up words about this album. It isn't solely a piano project. Aside from Lana's vocals there are also strings throughout. One of my favorite instrumental cuts The Poetry Of Wind And Waves gives nearly its entire second half over to the strings. While they add a new element to the sound of the record they do absolutely nothing to alter the mood itself. The peaceful steadiness of this project runs from start to finish, which is an accomplishment I'm just not sure what else to say about it. This album is perfectly adequate, peaceful, and tasteful. I enjoy it while it's on but even compared to the closest record to it I've reviewed this year, Sufjan Stevens' Reflections, it's just overwhelmingly plain. 6/10

A New Tomorrow - Zulu

I've kept my eyes on Zulu all year because I covered a song of their for All Music's Music Monday segment last year. That song turned out to be the lead single for this album, though when I heard the entire thing I wasn't exactly blown away. While I did make that comment in a tweet after the album dropped I wanted to follow up with a quick review. Despite the talent clearly at play in Zulu and the unique lane they occupy, I'm just not crazy about this debut project. Its format of short and sporadic songs many of which run under two minutes is closer to the hardcore punk they deliver on about a third of the record's songs than the more metal type songs and pure interludes elsewhere. That disrupts the flow of the album VERY badly and it feels like as soon as the band has any momentum they quickly abandon it. It also doesn't help the thematic approach as much as you'd think it should. There are some truly great moments on the record where the band explores race, ethnic, and cultural history through a compelling lens. Unfortunately, it's so disjointed that it's hard to develop throughlines between these themes. They feel more like a loosely related series of motifs each of which relies entirely on its own developed merit, and all songs are NOT made equal on the album. 

Keep in mind that this record does have a ton of creativity and plenty of highlights. Lyfe AsA Shorty Shun B So Ruff is the best of the record's hard-rocking tracks. Creme De Cassis is a beautiful spoken word track which leads into a genuinely compelling rap outing on We're More Than This. But too often the band is intent on interrupting their stride before they can even hit it. Though potential seeps out of a lot of these tracks, they only occasionally follow through. 5/10