Initially, “The Magnificent Adventures of Heartache (And Other Frightening Tales)” could only be heard on iTunes and MySpace. The time it spent on those two giant arenas of the digital world helped Jason Reeves garner tons of acclaim. Consistently in the Top Five Acoustic (unsigned) and Top 20 Overall (unsigned) on Myspace and the winner of the “Top Folk Album of 2007.” Reeve’s indie album got the attention of Warner Bros. Records who couldn’t pass up the opportunity to distribute his album on a much larger scale. “The Magnificent Adventures of Heartache (And Other Frightening Tales)” is radio ready and listener friendly and has a lot of critics recalling the beginning stages of such successful careers as Jason Mraz and John Mayer.
It is easy to compare Jason Reeves with the Jason Mraz/John Mayer/Howie Day crew and, in many ways; it is a fair comparison. This comparison, however, fails to fully describe Reeves and his music. Certainly a guy and his guitar/piano singing about the difficulties of love and simply existing in this world: trying through his trials, errors and guitar chords to find his identity: Reeves, like Mraz and the others, pulls from the white-American-straight-boy pool of inspiration. Unlike his counterparts, however, Reeves seems to fearlessly explore these familiar themes with no reserve, no concern for seeming less white, less straight, less all-American boy and his risks produce great results: an honest, heartfelt coming-of-age journey cut into 16 segments and produced as a remarkable debut album.
Derived from the inspiration of singer/songwriter titans such as Bob Dylan and James Taylor, Jason Reeves’ lyrics are willing to go beyond the simplistic and delve into more thought provoking, often complex, ideas, themes and concepts. Throughout much of “The Magnificent Adventures of Heartache (And Other Frightening Tales),” however, Reeves’ lyrics walk the dangerous line of clever and cliché. Mostly clever, the rare moments when a clichéd metaphor or rhyme creeps in are slightly painful yet, thankfully, quickly recovered with lyrics of more depth. In “The Sun Shines on Everything,” for example, the awkward, “you hit my eyes like the morning light rushing like waves through the countryside” is followed by the cleverly allusioned, “and you took me down like a landslide/you’re taking me under.” Even the most brilliant contemporary lyricists (Connor Oberst, Rufus Wainwright, Regina Spektor) occasionally miss the mark but, like Reeves, follow those faults with lyrics of such resounding beauty that mistakes are quickly forgotten as the listener gets lost in the song.
Not only does one get lost in the music and lyrics of many of the tracks that create the overall feel of “The Magnificent Adventures of Heartache (And Other Frightening Tales)” one will likely also find himself/herself immediately singing along. The hooks on songs like “You In a Song” and “Pretty Eyes” are truly catchy and are an enjoyable listen many times over. Overall, “The Magnificent Adventures of Heartache (And Other Frightening Tales)” is a great debut album by this rising talent.
Check out the tracks, “Never Find Again,” “You In a Song” and “Entwined” to get a solid taste of Jason Reeves’ sound.
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