Search - Jaspar Loes :: Billboard in This Faint Little Light

Simple, sweet, sparkling poetry

Brian Melendez | Minneapolis, MN United States | 07/04/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Jaspar Loes has been compared to Johnny Cash, and to Simon & Garfunkel. She reminds me more of a twentysomething version of Sarah McLachlan, or Nanci Griffith (without the Texas twang). Maybe the way that she describes herself is best: "Her sound is a country hinged folk with a hint of rock and roll. Her lyrics are wishful and wide open. Jaspar wears her heart on her words, and the stories she weaves bring a delicate sensitivity to human longings for love and for home."



"billboard in this faint little light" (the title conflates the lyrics from two songs) is Jaspar Loes's second album, following her debut "Songs for Charlie" (which is already hard to find). This album showcases her talent well, especially her beautiful voice and her tremendous vocal range. But the more striking feature is that, with all her talent and depth, her music is totally unpretentious. The melodies are tuneful yet simple, the lyrics straightforward and clear. She writes like a young Leonard Cohen, a poet more interested in writing good poetry than in proving what a good poet she is.



But for all their simplicity and sweetness, her songs do sparkle with the wry lyrical gem every now and again, and they often go places that you don't realize until you have really listened a few times. The songs about sadness end up in subtle optimism. The songs about vulnerability are secretly about strength ("And I am so empty and the night is so black / And the tears you stole / Well, I want them back"). There are fewer stories on this album than on "Songs for Charlie" -- these songs are a little more abstract, a little more challenging to interpret. The underlying theme may be love, or it may be faith, or both ("I come down in parables / Making human arms terrible"). The relationships that she sings about may be primarily emotional, or mostly spiritual ("I think I'll climb a mountain today / To find my truth / But I can't find a mountain harder to climb than loving you"). The most playful song is the catchiest, the last song on the album, "amy," about a young geologist (a real person, who has a line in the song) who sees the world in a different way.



Jaspar Loes is probably the most intriguing new singer / songwriter that I have heard in a few years. She recently released a third album, "good morning! sunshine." I don't know where she is headed next with her music, but it will be fun following each new album as her career blossoms."