sad boi sundayz, vol i: tobias jesso jr.

by Jeremy Alben on March 15, 2015

Posted in: Album Review, Music, Rock

Tobias Jesso Jr.

Sunday mornings blow chunks. I’m sure you’re all familiar with the feeling of waking up with what feels like a small army of gerbils stomping on your brain and a mélange of grille items fermenting in your gut. As the haze of last night’s meeker soiree fades from your bloodshot eyes, the realization that you will spend the next 16 hours staring into your retina display finishing (or starting) all of the work you put off slowly seeps into your diminished consciousness. I’ve come to realize that in the face of the many horrors of Sunday mornings it’s crucial to remember that someone out there is sadder than you and, if you’re lucky, they’ve recorded songs about how sad they are for your cathartic enjoyment. With that in mind, it’s my melancholic pleasure to welcome you to sad boy sundayz, a weekly blog about the saddest tunez I’ve heard this week.

Our first sad boi hails from Vancouver, BC and slouches at 6’7”. He goes by Tobias Jesso Jr. and his debut album Goon comes out this Tuesday (3/17) on True Panther Sounds. The hype for Goon has been building over the last two years, when his saccharine piano ballads first appeared in lo-fi fuzz on Youtube. The album materialized in bits and pieces as Jesso Jr. departed LA after a shitty breakup and began pouring out his emotions in his parent’s basement. Goon is a perfect distillation of every sad boi’s first real breakup. The track titles aren’t subtle; from “Can’t Stop Thinking About You” to “Without You” to “Bad Words,” Jesso leans into the despair of losing a lover and the results are beautiful. The tracks are gushy, yes, but the clichés Jesso croons are genuine throughout and in their lyrical simplicity, allow the listener to embellish each tune with their own sad feelz. Standout tracks “How Could You Babe” and “Bad Words” crystallize Jesso’s style: deep piano grooves crescendo as his subtle whine provokes one salty tear. For all of the melancholy, there are certainly moments of hope as Jesso romps through “Crocodile Tears” and picks up the guitar to timidly ask a girl on a date in “The Wait.” There is no pretension here, only a loping goon doing his best to get his shit together while crushing the hearts of sad boiz and girlz (or any other gender identityz) everywhere. Listen, be sad, cry, and repeat until you actually have to finish that History of Cartography essay.

Stream Goon in full on iTunes here.