Album Review : Jackie Greene : Till the Light Comes

Jun 28, 2010 Album Reviews
Posted by Adam

In the much anticipated (at least by me) follow up to Giving Up the Ghost, Greene returns with another home run of an album. I personally enjoy everything he has ever released, but he seems to have really gotten into a groove with his last three efforts.

Till the Light Comes offers everything you could want from a Greene album, some rockers, a few folkier tunes, great lyrics, superior musicianship and a feeling of satisfaction when you finish listening.

With the help of his new found Deadhead fans this will undoubtedly be his best selling release and it’s great to see him getting this kind of success albeit about 6 years too late in my opinion. I am glad that he did not seem to forget who he is and pander to that audience.

This is an album that you can listen all the way through without skipping a single track which is a rarity in the day of iTunes. It’s always refreshing when relatively young artists embrace the methods of the past and release a good album.

There are a few definite standouts on this record as with any release. “1961″ is a ballad that tells the story of a man who gets a woman pregnant and does not know it in 61. It follows their lives and that of their son until the son finds the man on his dying bed. It’s a goose bump inducing tune.

Another track that I am taken with is ” Spooky Tina”, an upbeat tune that describes the narrator’s desire to be with the not so desirable sister of a girl that everyone wants.

One last phenomenal track is “Medicine”. This is a backlash towards the practice of over-diagnosing and over-medicating every little mental issue people can come up with a name for. I love this song because it reflects the way I feel about the subject matter. Sometimes being blue is just a part of life and it often allows us to see things in a different light that leads to an improved life. As Greene puts it “I don’t want your medicine, creeping around fucking with my head”.

With American Myth, Giving up the Ghost, and now Till the Light Comes, Jackie Greene has delivered as good as a three record run as we’ve seen in the last decade. Add in the two EP’s he’s released in that time and he just keeps serving up great music on a pretty regular basis. Also the fact that he has yet to reach his 30th birthday makes me happy to know that I should be growing old while listening to new releases from him.

You can find out more on Greene and order the new record which is officially released tomorrow on his website, www.jackiegreene.com, where he has been streaming full versions of the songs from the new one all week.

Tags: album review, Jackie Greene