Don't Let Your Love Life Get You Down

Jaye Jayles Evan Patterson pushed the boundaries of his music on Prisyn, creating the albums desolate electronics with nothing but an iPhone 8 and GarageBand (and the help of collaborator Ben Chisholm). Though Dont Let Your Love Life Get You Down is more in keeping with the gritty, rootsy sounds of his earlier work, its message might be Pattersons most daring statement yet: Heartbreak is devastating, but it doesnt have to define you. Written and recorded in the wake of Pattersons divorce, Jaye Jayles fifth album plays like a loose journal of living with, and through, heartache thats focused on the world around him rather than dwelling in bitterness. Dont Let Your Love Life Get You Down also sounds like coming back to life after Prisyns icy isolation. The full-band interplay generates a heat and depth that are immediately apparent on the redemptive opening track, "Warm Blood and Honey." Along with the earthy imagery of "Black Diamonds and Bad Apples" -- storms, apples, highways -- its one of many reminders that the blues and gospel are always fundamental to Jaye Jayles music, no matter how far Patterson seems to stray from them. Sometimes, this debt is felt in the albums cathartic mood instead of its literal sound. Patterson evokes the great pain caused by the loss of a great love with sweeping sounds that are more akin to post-rock than any of his previous work. On "Waiting for the Life," he exorcises his suffering by setting the mantra "stop waiting for that life to return" aloft on buoyant guitar and synth washes; on "The Florist," Pattersons meditation on how fleeting love can be attains an echoing grandeur. He complements the albums vivid sound design with songwriting thats just as eloquent on the dusty, sidewinding cautionary tale "That Snake Bite" and "The Party of Redemption," a haunting reflection on what it means to let go that stretches into the ancient past and distant future at the same time. For Patterson, moving on doesnt mean running away from pain. Instead, he confronts it and expresses it to its fullest, especially on the aching finale, "When We Are Dogs." Sung by an especially wounded-sounding Bonnie "Prince" Billy and graced by Patrick Shiroishis mournful saxophone, its a wake for a dead love and a wish to live "together separately" thats as relatable as it is powerful. Emotionally and musically, Dont Let Your Love Life Get You Down is some of Pattersons heaviest music -- but its also some of his most satisfying and moving. ~ Heather Phares