Free Summer album from Jake Troth :: “Blind Contours”

I am a big fan of the humble melodies of Jake Troth, formerly of the San Fran Bay Area, now relocated to Savannah for school. While he studies design and other fluidly creative mediums, he’s still producing music non-stop, because it makes him happy. That’s a very good reason. It makes me happy too, also because he wants to give away his latest (very fine) album through Fuel/Friends.

Now just because it’s free, please don’t think that means “not good enough to sell.” That is not the case. I do love Jake’s work, and I think he easily has the talent to hang in the big leagues. But there is also a fresh and unassuming quality to this eminently listenable album. “For The Best” reprises some of that virginal ’50s high-school-dance feeling that I so loved on his earlier tunes, while cuts like the supershort “Hell Fire” echo the earliest rawness of My Morning Jacket (circa Tennessee Fire).

Here are some thoughts on Blind Contours, from Jake:

“The album is a reaction to various conversations about God and religion with those in my life. Everywhere I’ve been in the last year, these conversations pop up out of nowhere and I felt like they were influencing so many thoughts that I had to write songs to release the emotion I had about it all.

I really fell in love with simplicity and the idea of creating something I can listen to over and over again. I had a ton of emails from people who liked the songs I spent the least amount of time writing, so I went about the entire record like that. I would stay up late watching Conan or Entourage re-runs, eat something, write a song, record it, go back to it in the morning and touch it up, and repeat.

I have far too many ideas for different mediums in my life to concentrate on being a rockstar or the next (insert name of popular singer-songwriter). At school I found that writing songs makes me happy, and hopefully makes others feel the same.”

Go.

BLIND CONTOURS – JAKE TROTH
All The Weight of God
Hell Fire
Cobra-Headed Black Farm
For The Best
Foreign Speak
Honeydoo
Firefly Soldier
Move With Me
Prove It
Right Direction
Aubrey

FULL ALBUM: BLIND CONTOURS

NOTE: He’s still doing that thing through his Jacob Rogers Clothing line where you order one of his hip designs and it includes an original EP of music as well. Can’t complain there.