Bandleader
Darren Jessee can surely be forgiven for leaving a five-year gap between 2011's
Girl Graffiti and Get Your Hand in My Hand. After all, the span included a reunion album and world tour with
Ben Folds Five -- two albums including Live -- and sideman work as a drummer both on the road and in the studio for
Sharon Van Etten.
Jessee never abandoned his singer/songwriter outlet, though, compiling material for a fourth
Hotel Lights LP during breaks between those gigs. He had the added task of covering drums for the first time with this band, since
Zeke Hutchins was busy with projects including becoming manager of
Deer Tick.
Jessee is still joined here by original bandmates
Alan Weatherhead on guitar and Jay Brown on bass.
Weatherhead also co-produced the album. Opening with a seductive, bossa nova-inflected remembrance ("Lens Flare") reassures listeners that the band's tone remains warm, laid-back, and reflective. Lyrics like "black hair over sunglasses, lens flare, people passing, leaves falling, getting tipsy" carried by extended-chord progressions in the pre-chorus quickly transport us to the song's universe. The entire track list is represented by rich, balanced arrangements and that consistent, wistful tone, but it's not for a lack of variety. The lovely melody in "Everything Hurts You Now" is underpinned by subtly twangy guitars, while piano and strings govern "What a Love." "You Don't Care" mixes acoustic guitar, piano, and more conspicuous keyboard voices than elsewhere on the album before the rhythm section joins in. Of note to '80s treasure seekers, there's a cover in the form a loyal if less jangly version of
Nikki Sudden's "Ambulance Station," originally from
Jacobites' 1985 album
Robespierre's Velvet Basement.
Jessee also does his own, more rustic take on the ballad "Sky High," a song he wrote for the 2012
Ben Folds Five album
The Sound of the Life of the Mind. Get Your Hand in My Hand may not hold any big surprises for those familiar with the group, but staying the course can be refreshing when a project offers such consistently poignant and well-crafted material. ~ Marcy Donelson