Forever, I've Been Being Born

Forever, Ive Been Being Born is Jesse Sykes & the Sweet Hereafters fifth album; it follows their last, Marble Son, by 14 years. Founders Sykes and guitarist/songwriter Phil Wandscher lost their rhythm section after MS. Sykes left music for a time to make videos. In 2020 she joined Dave Alvins Third Mind project, whove recorded two glorious albums. Forever, Ive Been Being Born is chock-full of emotionally resonant songs, delivered with the heart of acceptance; ethereal and melancholic, the set offers a shadowy but steady light. Co-produced by Sykes, Wandscher, and Robb Davidson, it was recorded by Johnny Sangster; both men also appear, as does singer/songwriter Marissa Nadler and many others. This outing doesnt engage in the heaviness of Marble Son; its a psychedelic folk/Americana album that is no less weighty for its softness, revealing a steely tenderness. In addition to guitars, bass, and drums, there are keyboards, strings, and intimate space. "Feather Treasure" beckons like a spell. Acoustic guitars introduce Sykes lithe vocal. Wandscher joins her in harmony and adds a distorted electric guitar break as Casio and shakers underscore the emotion. "Gentle Chaperone" is a darkly tinged ballad that sounds like it fits between Kendra Smiths "Valley of the Morning Sun," and Blind Faiths "I Cant Find My Way Home." Sykes gossamer vocals are supported by Nadler and Wandscher, "O my gentle chaperone/This is where I stay/But this is not my home ...." Fingerpicked acoustic and electric guitars flow over keyboards, Davidsons field recorded birdsong, and a wafting synth and strings. Wandscher plays almost all the instruments on "Winters Empty Page." Its lush vocal harmony makes it an aesthetic cousin to David Crosbys If I Could Only Remember My Name with an Americana tinge and gorgeous guitar playing. "Dead End Pools" is a blues-kissed waltz; it offers psychedelic country music with organ, pianos, and percussion, as a chorus supports her in a love song across time and space. Nadlers high wordless soprano is heard from the shadows on "Oh, My Sitter," as Sykes delivers her lead in waltz time, with poetic lyrics floating above Wandschers instrumentation wedding psychedelic Americana and folk. The title track emerges right from the American Gothic tradition, again with Nadler on harmony, "Searching for songs we left unsung/While wandering through those hills/The shadows of our fears Were out to play...." "My Sweet Hereafter," a bluesy, gothic folk song, is beautifully written and performed by Wandscher solo. Set-closer "A New Medium" is offered as an ethereal manifesto before it ratchets as Wandschers electric guitars explode in a multi-tracked solo. Forever, Ive Been Being Born certainly differs from its predecessors. It remains in the tension of the blurry terrain between genres. The bands extended hiatus benefitted Jesse Sykes & the Sweet Hereafter as musicians, producers, and singers. Sykes is one of the most important lyricists out there; in the grain of her rootsy, gauzy, resonant voice are emotional, psychological, and physical truths. ~ Thom Jurek