Record Review // Jake Manzi "Here She Comes"

https://jakemanzi.bandcamp.com/album/here-she-comes

From the first notes on "Here She Comes" it feels almost impossible not to fall in love with the sound of Jake Manzi.   But on this record, Jake Manzi does what other artists so often cannot do and that is engage for the entire time.  Sometimes, it can be hard for music to hold your interest.  Not just in a way of listening to an album for three months and then abandoning it, but even I have been guilty of listening to a pop album I've liked only three or four songs into it and then skipping to something else.

To find music which can remain this consistent throughout an entire album is not easy, but Jake Manzi has done it and I think I've figured out one aspect of the formula.   "Here She Comes" is the type of album where right away when you press play you're going to like it, but then certain songs put more on the first side of it are going to get stuck in your head.  "Be Your Fool", the very first song, is a great example of this.

I found that the more I listened to this record though, the easier was to recognize (and sing along with) the songs on the first side before the songs on the second side.   To have all the songs hit you at the same time, it doesn't have the same effect as being able to delay to reaction in a sense, as Jake Manzi has done here.   This means if you're like me, you're going to sit with this record for several months (and more listens than I'd care to count) before you truly feel like the whole thing has opened up to you.

Ultimately, Jake Manzi makes music that isn't quite pop and it's mostly rock but there is something in it which can be addictive, showing that pop side.  From artists such as Ben Kweller and Bruce Springsteen to that time Tom Petty did a complete soundtrack for a film, this just reminds me of the way an album was prior to the 21st Century, so I definitely enjoy that about it as well.  But the way it is structured and thus revealed itself to me in layers just makes it all that more rare and an experience worth taking.