Jenny Owen Youngs: "Fuck Was I" and Batten The Hatches
like a good friend or a close cousin, i have to come to terms with the fact that i can't really write about Jenny. reading her is a little (way) too much like reading myself. looking at her is a little (yeah) too much like going back through old highschool pictures. but her music? her music is different, probably because i don't make any. but if i couldn't listen to her voice, i wouldn't be fumbling over this prose in the first place.

Jenny Owen Youngs. she will not launch into anything brilliant, we apologize for the inconvenience, but she will say this: Jenny has succeeded in rapidly getting herself the fuck out there. citing a tender 1981 (let's be honest, she looks and sounds younger), she's honed the whole guitar thing since about the time i was getting my braces off and stumbling over driving lessons, and she's done really well for herself. she's no Backstreet Boys, as in she's not five males and she actually took to an instrument before a music career. she's got it all going for her. right?

mmm -- not yet. Batten The Hatches, her debut LP, is temporarily unavailable due to the fact that it'll be released on Nettwerk soon, catapulting her from whereverNewJersey to holy shit, this is a real career. the highly addictive and repetitiously explicit "Fuck Was I" (as in, what the) is getting itself on TV (just ask Jenny), running amok on the internets and tapping on your desktop right this very second, as it's below these words in bold orange with four annoying colons next to it (why does she do that?) --

::::as promised (quip to go along):
Jenny Owen Youngs - Fuck Was I
BONUS. Jenny Owen Youngs - From Here

with a barrage of witticisms and shark weirdness (i don't know kids, i don't know), by far the most surprising thing about her is the depth and seriousness of her voice. it's her sense of humor wrapped up with an earnest message (love, life, growing up, wild animals) and good intention. comparisons to KT Tunstall (guitar work, folky feel) and Erin Mckeown (vocals) aren't far off, but it's still unfair to say. she's distinctly Jenny -- and yet, somehow reminds me of myself, officially crossing boundaries of time and space and defying our earthly understanding of physics to be inherently individual and yet also me at the same time. um, yes.

so ends a smackingly self-indulgent review of someone decidedly not myself -
and you should go to her myspace, where she will take care of you from here.
also, you can bet anything there'll be a crazy growing hype, during which time we'll make a repost or something (just to say, just to say). she's already been covered by Matt, clearly a myspace peruser, quite some time ago. kudos, yo.

Labels: reviews

  shan  6:46 AM  |  view comments (4)