Album Review: Jenn Grant Wonders If “Paradise” Is Possible
Can you put paradise into a song? Is music powerful or big enough to capture this idea? Jenn Grant’s Paradise, the follow-up to the Juno nominated Compostela, tries to put paradise into a same-titled album. Truthfully, she succeeds in giving audiences a sonic domain that brings forth an electro utopia.
Synth-pop might be the perfect genre to delve into a “paradise” ideology. It is a genre that uses electro rhythms to build a sense of bigness to its sound, and is open to folkish lyrics, which can be found in tracks “Lion With Me”, “Galaxies”, and “Legacy”. Grant knows how to write words that resonate with the insular, introverted nature of singers like Joni Mitchell. She shares an ability to write poetic verses and sing them with a sweet lull that appears observant. It is as if she sings of paradise from a park bench in the sky. There she watches the lives of others as they try to achieve Heaven with a chain holding them to earth. Of course, Grant as a poet and dreamer cannot discuss an achievement of eternal, unconditional happiness without approaching struggle like in “I’m A River” and “Sorry Doesn’t Know”. For Grant, she is a fluid being that is eager to flow into a higher sense of being but crashes into others’ or her own inability to always stay high even when facing the lowliness of life. Such a notion is universal and human, which is why the arrangements of the album work to flesh out the fantastical heart of this record.
Paradise is phenomenally arranged. Each synth, chord, and bassline is placed to give a mysticism to the record that is natural to Grant’s reflective personality. She wants to see and accept why her love cannot save her lover in “Dogfight” or observe the perseverance and inner push that works within a “Working Girl”. Thus, no song sounds like the other, which may seem obvious, but, sometimes, albums do not find their fluidity in their sonic progressions as much as their thematic or vocal ones. The only things connecting these songs are the synths, symbolic spiritualism, and, of course, Grant’s singing. Grant is fabulous in how intricate she makes her voice to both the melodies and soulful motions of her tracks. In songs “Paradise” and “In My Dreams”, Grant has no problem adding a hum, a coo, or randomly charmed vocal inflection to ooze an emotion. This capacity makes her artful manner catchy and accessible to listeners whom see “paradise” as too big an idea to approach. Yet to Grant music can make everything approachable, especially better world/ sense of being. For More Information On Jenn Grant And To Buy Paradise On March 3 Click Here.
