Label: Loose
Release date: 01.05.2020
What’s New, Tomboy? is an album that seeks respite in bare minimums and barren revelations: sometimes frail, sometimes affirming, sometimes wry, and usually a threadbare mix of all those sentiments. It could be considered Damien Jurado’s finest collection of music to date, with songs exuding the inviting warmth of a lone porch light gleaming amidst the disorienting darkness. Though more stripped and grounded in their execution, songs like “Sandra”, “Ochoa” and “Alice Hyatt” are generous and candid in their vocabulary, eschewing the sometimes abstruse imagery of Jurado’s previous releases. “There is no hiding on these tracks.” Though What’s New, Tomboy? is the first Damien Jurado record that ends with a question mark, he has never sounded more assured and content in giving up his ghosts: “I’m only living sentences // That were long before I got here.”
I love the landscape Damien draws you into in this album; while listening you feel like you’re sitting on his porch on a late summer’s night as he paints scenes with his ever introspective poetic lyrics and wraps you in a blanket of calming melodies. The production is cosy and strikes just the right balance, allowing his guitar work and words room to breathe. The rhythms feel both spontaneous and controlled – up-beat and languid – coming together to create THE ultimate comfort album. We need Damien now more than ever, so relieved he’s back.