Affirmation Day
Jake Allen, 2020
8/10
A multi-instrumentalist and fingerstyle guitar artist, Jake Allen returns with his 4th album, Affirmation Day, where his incredibly intricate formula embraces prog-rock, folk, alt-rock and, most importantly, boundless creativity.
Allen starts the listen with the title track, where meticulous acoustic guitar complements his soft, expressive singing as atmosphere is key while building into a soaring, majestic environment, and “More Than Meets The Eye” follows with an equally unpredictable landscape of pop-friendly melodies and cautious instrumentation.
Closer to the middle, “Living Ghost” moves softer with an intimate quality and a bit of mystery, while “Prague 6” gets busy with dynamic interplay between the many instruments. “Rising Tide”, one of the album’s strongest tracks, then finds plenty of rhythm and melody amid the strings and full percussion present.
The song craft remains consistently strong until the end, where “Things We’ll Never Find” bursts into a loud explosion of infectious pop-rock, and “I’ll See You On The Other Side” exits the listen with soulful singing alongside a powerful, glorious execution of sophisticated yet adventurous songwriting.
Penned during a lengthy stint of isolation in Lithuania after his tours through Europe, Russia, China and Japan, Allen wrote the entire record with just an acoustic guitar and his voice, and he brings in 20 year old violinist Basil Alter to add strings to the bulk of the listen. A highly textured affair, Affirmation Day is a substantial listen both musically and lyrically, and one that both longtime fans and new listeners will find much enjoyment in.
Travels well with: Glenn Jones- Ready For The Good Times; The Mommyheads- New Kings Of Pop