Jenny Owen Youngs - Transmitter Failure
By Nick Manteris · 0 Comments · Leave a Comment
Jenny Owen Youngs is an indie folk rock singer-songwriter from New Jersey. Her song “Fuck Was I” played in the first episode of the second season of Weeds and boosted her popularity more than tenfold…if you know her music there’s a good chance it’s because of that song. Transmitter Failure is Jenny’s sophomore album and most of the songs on it are better than the song that put her on the map.
The forty-second “First Person” starts the album off with (what seems to be) her perspective on relationships: “What’s the worst thing that could happen? / we find out that we don’t quite fit / but on the flip side, we could be just right / and sure there’s the chance that we’ll both end up broken and split / but that’s my kind of risk.” Next she raises the energy levels for “Led To The Sea,” which is just about as far away as possible from the folksy sounds of her debut album and then there is the emotional break-up song “Dissolve,” one of the best songs on the album. “Here Is A Heart” is slightly more depressing, with the line, “Here is a heart / I made it for you, so take it / battered and braised / grilled and sautéed / just how you like it.” Two of the other best songs are “Clean Break” and “What Beats Within,” which, surprisingly, both also seem to be about relationship issues. “Last Person” revisits and expands upon the melody and the lyrics from the intro and seems to be about the positive, beginning part of a liaison instead of the end…for once.
- Score
- 76%
Transmitter Failure is definitely not a sophomore slump…in fact, it barely missed being one of the top-ten albums released in 2009 (so far) and there wasn’t a single skippable song on the album. Jenny Owen Youngs is a talented artist that shares personal and revealing anecdotes through music and the world can always benefit from more of that, right?
