Today, rising alt-country singer-songwriter Jack Van Cleaf released his sophomore album JVC. And if you're a sucker for self-deprecating, existential songwriting with strong melodies like me, it's a release standout. He's already gotten a good bit of traction, having opening slots for Noah Kahan, Briston Maroney, and Madi Diaz. He's even struck up a creative relationship with polarizing country super star Zach Bryan, who's featured on the album. JVC proves staying power with poignant lyricism and warm vocals.
Most of JVC deals with the panic of getting older, accumulating experience and passing more time but still feeling like a dumb, ignorant kid. Who can relate?! On the slow and breezy "Piñata," he flips the childhood celebratory activity into something dark, violent: "I'm full of sugar, I'm full of niceties/ I'm full of shit/ Go get the kids, hit me with sticks/ I'll spill my guts on the green, green grass to see how it feels." He manages to capture the trippy, unsettling perception-shifting norm of adulthood.
Growing out of young adulthood isn't the only future-related anxiety on the album. A few songs tackle the climate crisis ("Green," "Life"). Van Cleaf manages to balance his songs with a pungent cynicism and panicked hope. The album closes with with the brilliant "Life" that suspensfully catches up with itself: "We put the planet in a plastic chokehold/ It's over, we know it," he sings, exasperated. "No one's gonna live to see their grandkids grow old/ Look closer, what's growing?/ Life is gonna find you one of these days/ Life is gonna find a way." He draws out that last note, giving me the perfect song to spiral to this summer.
He's also released a Joey Brodnax-directed video for the track "Hikikomori," which a Japanese term for individuals that severely isolate from society, staying in their homes for at least several months. "'Hikikomori' revealed itself to be an accurate, succinct representation of the album as a whole," Van Cleaf said. "The desperation of the lyrics alongside the outlaw-inspired production evoked the inner desolation that I was seeking to illustrate with JVC, like the West Texas desert where we recorded it.”
Listen to JVC and watch the video for "Hikikomori" below.
JVC is out now via Dualtone Records.
