A Response to Criticism of Jandek Fans

I was writing a short review of San Francisco Friday by Jandek, and I was distracted by this incredibly ignorant and rude review on the RateYourMusic page for that particular album. Over the months I've spent looking for Jandek content in the depths of the Internet, I've found that a fair amount of people write criticisms of Jandek's cult following - about as many people write about this as there are Jandek fans themselves, it seems. They tend to be ridiculously trollish and wordy and focus on the fact that Jandek can't play guitar and seem to ignore any other aspect of his music. They criticize Jandek for the amount of albums he has and how his fans continue to buy them and go to his shows, giving him more money to continue making music and playing live more. 

My actual review of San Francisco Friday, a surprisingly bluesy Jandek live performance, was quite short, and I'll post it later. But I quickly went into a rebuttal to these horrible criticisms of Jandek fans because I was so angered by their tremendous ignorance and rudeness, so here is what I wrote. This writing is kind of very messy and clunky but I just really wanted to get my thoughts out. But I honestly hope the person who wrote that review doesn't find this because I'm not really ready to get into a fight with someone over the Internet again (those give me anxiety). 

I don’t know why a person on RYM chose this particular album (San Francisco Friday) to write a headass review where they talk about how Jandek keeps making sh*tty music and his fans eat it up, because this is definitely one of his most musical and most artistically valuable live albums. It’s okay not to like his music but it doesn’t make sense to say it doesn’t have artistic value and that his fans are wasting their time. It’s honestly rude and quite pathetic that someone could be that pissed about people simply enjoying the work of a musical artist and wanting to support them. 

The amount of creativity that goes into his lyrics and the variety of the instrumentation among the live shows is obviously enough to demonstrate the appeal of his music. On his live albums, he does everything from noisy rock to ambient spoken word to experimental acoustic folk to avant-garde jazz to accessible chamber folk to bluesy rock like this. Even if it’s mostly other musicians doing the work for his music, Jandek still shows a lot of creativity by assembling those musicians, writing the lyrics and making the foundation for the show, and allowing them to improvise and bring their own personality to his music. Jandek also writes about extremely personal subjects like depression, loneliness, and broken heartedness, and it would be ignorant to disregard that fans might seek solace in his artistic expressions regarding those topics. 

Obviously it’s subjective and you don’t have to say you enjoy any of it, but you can’t criticize his fans for going to his shows, buying his albums, and analyzing his music. The Jandek project is one of the most unique musical experiences in general because of his idiosyncratic musical and lyrical style and the evolution of his genres, and that’s pretty hard to doubt - are there any artists that truly sound like Jandek? Could you ever call anything a “Jandek copy”? And it’s pretty hard not to see any appeal at all to the depths of his live albums, especially when they include accessible bluesy gems like San Francisco Friday, and they include other hidden greatnesses like all those genres I just mentioned, and his lyrics. To boil down the content of Jandek’s music to “he can’t play guitar and no one told him to stop” is incredibly ignorant all those creative qualities/sources of appeal that I just mentioned, and shows that you just want to criticize people for enjoying something that you’re too lazy to look any deeper into. 

Jandek - The Door Behind - Review

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The Door Behind consists of more electric guitar songs; it’s more interesting than acoustic or bass so I’m pleased. The playing sounds really improvised and the notes constantly changed unexpectedly throughout each song. The instrumentation was somewhat engaging. I think I prefer it over the previous album. I actually really enjoyed the vocal delivery. It was very depressive and could be described as howling or wailing, and ranks above some of the previous few albums. Sometimes I have to stop and forget that every Jandek album essentially sounds the same, because when taken out of the context of the rest of the albums that sound just like this, The Door Behind is actually quite beautiful and heartbreaking on its own.

The lyrical content is very similar to The End of it All, with a major focus on relationships. “Do You Want Me” is simple and connects to the last song from the last album. “I’m in your world / And you’re in mine / You got one side / I got the other”. “Gate Strikes One” is about what I assume to be a recollection of Jandek’s first romantic experience. Another connection to the previous album is the constant use of the word “like” instead of “love”, which has a childlike connotation, because when you’re a kid in school you “like” your classmate, you don’t “have feelings” for them. The whole situation of the song is described in a simple, straightforward way that really sounds like the way a kid would describe that type of experience. I like the irony of it all.

“I’m Not That Good” is about the “desert calling me” and his fear surrounding what could be there. OK lyrics. “The Slow Burn” is confusing. It starts with what sounds like census questions or something about whether he’s married or not. He describes how he wants to be alone because someone has burned down his house. He says that when they’re gone, he’ll live in a new house, but he also slips in the line “You can be my princess”. There’s also the amusing line “I need to kill those squirrels running around in the top of my head” stuck in the middle, which aptly describes my confusion around this song. I like how indecisive and cranky it is, though.

“It’s Only You” and “Every Sentence” are both love songs, but something is very off-putting about them, including his musical performance. The former song features rapid, ominous guitar. The singer is quite obsessive about the woman he loves and quite literally worships the ground she walks on and the air she breathes, but it doesn’t sound like the love is returned (“And love me, I love you”). The individual lyrics are very romantic, but they just make me worry that something is amiss behind the scene. 

I like that the lyrics continue the story from the last album. It’s very similar to it too, but slightly better (not “great” by any means, though). I also just really like the depressing musical style in general, even if it’s pretty much the same thing on every album.

6.8/10

Essential album?: No

Essential songs: 

The Slow Burn

Jandek - The End of It All - Review

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The bass phase was short-lived (or so it appears). The End of It All opens with a gentle electric guitar strum (haven’t heard that in about 16 albums, actually), and is similar in style to the solo acoustic albums, but with slightly different playing. I can’t quite put my finger on what’s different about it, but it might be that there’s slightly less rhythm and more abstraction, and the mixing feels more intimate (it reminds me of my own home recordings on my electric, and I actually have never felt that with an artist before - I’m convinced I’m playing the electric wrong or something). I can’t help but wish he would make another “European Jewel” instead of these meandering guitar solos, though. The vocal delivery sounds kind of exhausted and uncomfortable rather than depressed or crazy - not his best - although a few moments are more manic.

The 20 minute opening track “One of Those Moments” is about a relationship, but I find it very hard to follow. However, there are a few lines that you can pick out and relate to, which I find fascinating because Jandek lyrics are typically more about the bigger picture than the moments. I like how it ends. 

“You told everybody you liked me

You made me say I liked you

All right so you had to pull me out of me

I was so deeply buried

I needed your air

And now I feel so alive

I don’t see anything different

It must be you, I accept that

We’ll see where it leads to

If you want to touch me I wouldn’t mind

It doesn’t happen too often, this kind of thing”

“I Hadn’t Been There Before” sounds like it’s about the same relationship and it involves a very anxious description about how dangerous entering the relationship was and how it messed up his head, despite how he’s happy (or maybe it’s the woman who’s happy). Haunting song. 

“They Don’t Matter at All” continues many of the same themes and describes the singer not knowing what his lover really thinks and if she really wants to be with him deep down, because he’s the one who does most of the talking. That strikes me because, in these lyrics, we truly don’t get to see the other side of the story. 

“I Met You” is easy to follow, and I find it endearing despite the eerie soundscape. The lyrics are about the singer hoping he can figure out what to do in the relationship so they can both feel lost in each other in the same way. The lyrics’ beauty speaks for itself. Again, lots of lines that still work out of context here, which I find rare for Jandek. 

“I don’t know if there’s just the right amount

But I hope I can figure it out

And give you just the right amount so that you lose yourself

And become a part of my reality

I got a world, I found you on the periphery

Somehow I pulled you in

Now that you’re here, tell me

Is it the best place you ever know

Because I’m at the best place I ever knew

And it’s just after I met you”

I like the lyrics on this one. They’re straightforward and they connect throughout the whole album. The musicianship is ok, I’m honestly glad we’ve progressed from the bass playing to something a little bit more tasteful.

6.7/10

Essential album?: No

Essential songs:

I Met You

Jandek - Shadow of Leaves - Review

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Besides a few exceptions from his later era, the only human being to ever appear on Jandek album covers was Sterling Smith himself. On some albums he makes this concept of self-portraiture extremely obvious, either by zooming in very close on his face so no one else can be seen (i.e. Chair Beside a Window) or obviously photoshopping out the background of the picture entirely (i.e. London Residency). Some very astute fans noticed that the trees on the cover of Shadow of Leaves repeat themselves, suggesting something was edited out of the photo. The lack of any other faces among the multitudes of covers really emphasizes the theme of loneliness in Jandek's music; but also, the album covers with his face are rather revealing for a man who's a self-proclaimed recluse and never reveals any information about himself. 

Shadow of Leaves continues the unplugged bass playing. Either the tuning of the bass or the playing technique seems to have changed, because many of the strums have a warped quality to them, which kept it slightly fresh, but not by much. The album was overall very hypnotic, and I enjoyed listening to it while on a sweltering-hot walk in the park, but it’s not necessarily that great or notable.

The 29-minute title track takes up the vast majority of the album. The vocal delivery is anxious and sometimes intense, similar to the previous acoustic period, but not as wholly so as on albums such as I Threw You Away. I was pleasantly surprised as I re-read the lyrics on this track because it’s one of the most poignant stories I’ve ever heard on a Jandek song. It describes Jandek’s experience with a dead or dying romantic partner throughout their lives. My interpretation of the beginning is that the partner has lost some ability to function and Jandek is willing to help her no matter what. It transitions to fragmented reminiscences of the times they spent together, which moves fast from images of walking together to drinking in the rain among other scenarios. He questions the permanence of what they had as he reveals his lover is dead, and he visits her grave and imagines being in heaven together. The song is so personal and specific that I genuinely feel sorry for him, and it would be hard to believe it’s not based on a true story. The constant themes of death within Jandek lyrics would lead me to believe so. Even “Down in a Mirror”, one of the most important tracks from his early era, describes being haunted by a ghost of a dead lover. My favorite aspects of the title track are Jandek’s devotion to his lover’s wellbeing, and his acknowledgements of thankfulness and hope.

Two shorter tracks make up the rest of the album. The musical technique is the same. “Find Me Again” is, to me, about Jandek describing how good he is at hide-and-seek. The song may be related to his reclusive nature and his career and how he never lets anyone know anything about him. 

“I Give You Me” sounds like Jandek giving an elevator pitch about himself to someone who’s about to break up with him to convince them not to leave him. It’s interesting, but it feels very shallow. A few lines continue a theme of weirdly sexual imagery that first appeared in the middle of “Shadow of Leaves”.

This is closer in quality to the spoken word albums. I wish there were more tracks, honestly. The title track has some of his finest poetry, but is too long to replay, and the other two tracks are just alright.

6.5/10

Essential album?: No

Jandek - The Gone Wait - Review

https://corwoodindustries.com/product/0773/

On The Gone Wait, Jandek has abandoned the acoustic guitar for an unplugged bass guitar. The strumming and picking of the bass is similar to his acoustic, but the tuning feels even more perplexing, keyless, and even less melodic than the guitar tuning. That gave this album a really unique, surreal feeling that left me a little more intrigued than the last few acoustic albums. The bass technique is mostly repetitive, but it starts to pick up a bit in the second half of the album, becoming more rhythmic/percussionist at times, particularly on one section during “I Was a King”. The vocal delivery is toned down here. It’s more similar to his spoken word era than the previous acoustic era. 

“I Went to Hell” is about not knowing if the one you love is going to hell or heaven, but wanting to be with them wherever they are. There are themes of reincarnation, with dying and being reborn in someone’s arms. “We use our bodies to describe what we feel” is a very memorable repeated line. 

“I See the Open Door” reminds me of the track “The Place”, but not as interesting. It describes hesitation surrounding entering an open door and not being able to go back.

“I Was a King” is an introspective, stream-of-consciousness song that has a common theme of a desire for power and control, and an ambiguous relationship with another during Jandek’s childhood.

“I Just Might Go Now” is very abstract and has so many themes that it’s hard to summarize in a sentence. It deals with not having a body, wanting someone else’s body, and waiting for that person to come so they can have a house together.

“I Found the Right Change” describes sitting in a front room where nobody else stays and getting to decide what passes through and what doesn’t. It’s likely a metaphor for something human. I’m noticing a big theme in recent Jandek albums of houses and rooms representing something greater and more inherent to the human experience. There are also a lot of themes of death and the loss of a body.

Very interesting lyrics on this one, but not as good or straightforward as The Place. I like the bass playing so far, but I don’t know if I can take another whole album of it. 

7/10

Essential album?: No. If you’re interested in hearing a “Jandek plus bass guitar” album, my pick would be Raining Down Diamonds.

Essential songs:

I Went to Hell

Jandek - The Place - Review

https://corwoodindustries.com/product/0772/

The Place is a similar album to The Humility of Pain. There’s nothing really interesting going on with the guitar, it’s a lot of the same stuff. The vocal delivery is good, although I feel like it’s starting to get old from the initial shock the new style gave on I Threw You Away. The final track “The Stumble” has the most dissonant and disorienting harmonica I've ever heard Jandek play, so it’s probably the best song on here. There aren’t many tracks, so I'll try to talk about the lyrics of each one, since that’s the only remaining feature to really discuss. 

“The Picture” is a philosophical song that questions how we move, how we communicate, how we construct time, and how everything is always moving and coming and going. It’s very abstract and full of wisdom.

“The Place” is more straightforward and easier to follow. It’s about Jandek looking for a key to a place that he’s left unchanged, and he wants everything to be exactly the way he left it, but he doesn’t actually know what’s inside. It’s a very strange metaphorical concept indeed. I think the message is that we tend to fear change, but our tendency for curiosity kills the possibility for stability. 

“The Highway” is also kind of straightforward, but very wise and abstract. The story seems to be about Jandek waking up from a near-death experience after falling in a chasm in the road and feeling physically and mentally scattered and confused. He worries about falling in the chasm again and waking up in another body or another place, or as nothing at all. I think it says a lot about how traumatic experiences affect us and change our decision making. 

I imagine “The Answer” is about a dream that includes an ancient face, a flashlight without a hand, an unknown person, and a lot of other surreal imagery that seems to just be an imaginary journey. Perhaps it means something, but it seems like nonsense to me. Edit: After reading another listener's interpretation, I think it’s more about Jandek hearing someone outside the door and having a bunch of imaginations about who it could be instead of answering the door. 

“The Stumble” has some beautiful lines, but the subject matter is hard to pinpoint. The lyrics talk of times and places shifting. The one pattern I can identify throughout the lines is how he can still accomplish what he needs, even if his legs become impaired or broken. There are many things to take away from this song, but what I get out of it is that physical ability is not a representation of the true self.

Overall, I like the lyrics and I liked interpreting them. They feel fresh and new. The music itself was decent but nothing I haven’t heard before. 

7/10

Essential album?: Maybe

Essential songs:

The Place

The Stumble