Finally, a musical album again. I Threw You Away is a solo acoustic effort, but it’s unlike anything I've heard before from Jandek. The guitar playing is in an alternate tuning with not a lot of variety, but the playing is intense and rhythmic with a lot of dramatic pauses. There is also quite a lot of reverb on the guitar and the vocals, giving the whole album a very spacious vibe, as if you’re far away from Jandek in a large room. A harmonica comes in about halfway through the album, and it’s about as key-less as his guitar playing. I don’t know if it’s any more dissonant or hopeless than past Jandek harmonica playing, but it feels like that to me.
Finally, the most notable and perhaps the best aspect of this album is Jandek’s vocals. His voice has changed A LOT from the last time we heard him sing. It’s nearly unrecognizable, but after listening to the spoken word albums, it’s believable that it’s the same person. I’ll miss his old voice, but there’s a lot to like about the new kind of vocals here too. Jandek simply HOWLS nearly every line in such a despairing tone. The repetitions of “black” on “Blues Turned Black” is the best example of this; I can’t help but think of “Black is the Color of My True Love’s Hair” by Patty Waters when I hear it.
The lyrics on this album are great too. They are starkly and unabashedly depressed, lonely, and painful. They’re difficult to read; they reference self-harm and numbness of feeling. On “Frozen Beauty”, he mourns the death of a loved one, although lines such as “I took your life / Put it in a box” suggest he has something to do with their death. “The World Stops” is less depressing and describes a trip back to familiarity, where one can finally experience quiet calmness. It’s a satisfying ending to the lyrical themes. The songs on this album are samey, but it’s overall a good experience and certainly surpasses much of his early acoustic material.
8/10
Essential album?: Yes
Essential songs:
Blues Turned Black*
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