Why Does the Earth Give Us People To Love?

フォークシーンに新たな才能、素晴らしすぎるデビュー作
店舗の片隅で商品加工を進めると、ジャケットから放たれる神秘的な魅力に心奪われ、思わず仕事をする手が止まってしまった。カセットから流れるダニエル・ジョンストン調の歌声から一転、アコースティック・ギターによるビビオのようなアルペジオ・サウンドで一気に夢心地へと誘う。幽玄の美を感じさせる(7)はなるほど、同じシカゴで活動するSen Morimotoの手腕によるもの。シンプルなギターとストリングスゆえ歌声の素晴らしさが際立つ(9)にトム・ヨークを重ねる(のは僕だけだろうか)。生々しい詩と悲痛な歌声とが相まったタイトルトラック(10)だけでもとにかく聴いて欲しい。これほどの作品にはそうそう出会えないが、いかんせん語るには文字数が足りない。

Although she began collecting awards for her poetry as a teen, including being named National Youth Poet Laureate in 2019, Chicagolands Kara Jackson is far from a writer who dabbles in music. She started piano lessons as early as age five, has referred to singing as her first love, and released her debut singer/songwriter EP within weeks of the laureate designation. Even though the EP, a spare acoustic-guitar outing, garnered positive attention for its blunt observations and turns of phrase as well as Jacksons husky, authoritative voice, it may have done little to prepare the music world for the stark theatricality and poignancy of her first album, Why Does the Earth Give Us People to Love? Parts Daniel Johnston and avant-cabaret show, it demands attention from the opening clatter of a cassette recorder and ensuing dinked-out piano and spoke-sung rhymes of the one-minute "recognized." ("Some people roll dice...Some people look nice...Some people snort lines...Some people tell lies to be recognized.") In an almost sharp contrast but for its continuation of the albums unrelenting starkness, the episodic "no fun/party" adds intermittent swooping strings and ghostly synths to its opening sections broken guitar chords. It then changes tempo, mode, and mood for a mournful B section that interrupts with thoughts like "Every person that Ive dated/Tells me Im intimidating" with a sinking melody. When the more tuneful A part returns, additional instruments, multi-tracked vocals, and effects are used sparingly for spacey, sometimes startling emphasis rather than band-like accompaniment. From there, the albums unpredictability is another defining trait. As Jackson continues in similar fashion through songs with titles like "dickhead blues," "therapy," and "rat" (featuring Ohmmes Macie Stewart on violin), she continues to reveal intimate details of her own struggles while painting memorable scenes and characters. Appearing relatively late in the track list, the showstopping title track was reportedly the first song Jackson wrote for the album, after a mentor received an identical cancer diagnosis to a friend who had recently died. Alongside the nearly hour-long records most haunting melody, it begins with the eternal question, "Why does the earth give us people to love, then take them away out of reach?" In theatric fashion, the album closes with a reprise (of "recognized") and a brief parting song, "liquor," whose mocking, rising-and-falling tune considers self-medicating after being discarded for someone deemed better looking. ~ Marcy Donelson

米・イリノイ州のSSW、Kara Jacksonのデビュー作。《dickhead blues》はPitchforkのBest New Trackに選出され輝かしいデビューを果たした。Nina SimonやNeil Young等から言葉の影響を受けたと話しており、「全米青年詩人賞」を受賞した彼女のポエティックな歌詞は知的好奇心が刺激される。骨太でブルージーなヴォーカルとフォーキーなメロディはFiona Appleのような独特な美しさを持ち一気に作品の世界に惹き込まれた。彼女の神秘的で芸術性溢れる才能に今後も注目していきたい。
intoxicate (C)石田真生