ALBUM REVIEW: Kara Jackson - Why Does the Earth Give Us People to Love?

    Time to open the review with the same old phrase I've been using so much this year - I have never heard of Kara Jackson prior to this album, and frankly after hearing this record for myself I am thoroughly convinced that it made the experience of hearing her for the first time all the more exciting. Kara Jackson is, from what little info I could gather on her Wikipedia page, an already successful poet, being published in various places and even being named the National Youth Poet Laureate in 2019, which is certainly a massively successful feat. Four years after that accomplishment and we have her debut album, a minimalist mix of folk and Americana ideas across a 52-minute runtime, and the results certainly speak for themselves. Jackson is not only a solid multi-instrumentalist and songwriter, but one with a more than distinct style and rich lyrical style. Couple that with a powerfully rich voice, and you have a more than good debut record that spells a bright future in music for Ms. Jackson.

    I've seen a few people compare Kara Jackson's voice to that of Nina Simone, and her contralto range certainly does immediately draw comparisons. If there's anything that is the focal point of this album, it's certainly Jackson's singing voice - it bestows much of the material, such as the slight twang of "pawnshop", with an added richness and character that benefits the material, and her voice is consistently in point throughout. It helps that she's a very dynamic performer, even if a lot of the album falls on a more methodical and mellow sound combined with some often longer songs. Even with the pretty minimal style and sometimes bare production, many of these songs don't feel drawn out or like a waste of time, in part due to Jackson's frankly brilliant lyricism. What would you expect from a Poet Laureate, I suppose, but many of the songs are endowed with a great sense for storytelling and dense ideas, from the lengthy "rat" to the glorious title track or the somber reflection of "curtains". It helps that many of these songs do have enough variety to their sound to keep your ears raised - songs like the frantic multi-segmented "dickhead blues" with its tinges of jazz or the touch of ambient on "free" give the album a spice of different ideas that divides up more traditional folk like the lovely "lily" or the short album closer "liquor". It adds up to a mostly simple musical background that's made all the more intriguing by the actual talents of Jackson as a lyricist and singer.

    One thing is certain in my eyes - Why Does the Earth Give Us People to Love? is a hell of a way to debut. Jackson's lyricism is consistently rewarding and dense, and often pairs very nicely with her powerful and confident voice. While the musical ideas can border in overly simple, it's mostly made up for with her creativity and willingness to add variety and life to the tracks at hand here. Hopefully whatever comes next from Jackson is just as confident and enriching as her debut - I certainly know I'll be hearing it when it comes.

RATING: ✯✯✯✯✯✯✯✯✯✯

Listen to Why Does the Earth Give Us People to Love?.