Gary Louris has never had a reputation for being the guy you turn to when you want to get the party started -- when his band
the Jayhawks cut an album called
Rainy Day Music, it was as if someone had finally come up with the ideal concise description of his approach, even though his work has always been beautifully crafted and consistently satisfying. So it's a bit of a surprise that for his second-ever solo album (arriving a mere 38 years into his recording career),
Louris has not only chosen the title
Jump for Joy, but he opens the set with "Almost Home," a decidedly upbeat number enhanced with plenty of New Wave synthesizer doodling. Of course, once we get to the second track, "Living in Between," we're back in traditional
Louris territory with an introspective number where he ruminates about where to go in his life, so perhaps he was just pulling our collective leg with the opening salvo. All in all,
Jump for Joy doesn't feel radically different from an early-2000s
Jayhawks album, aside from its spare arrangements and stripped-down production.
Louris wrote all the songs and played all the instruments on
Jump for Joy, and his signature sound doesn't stray very far from what he's been doing with his band since the 1980s, but he does give himself a chance to explore a few avenues outside his traditional framework. "Mr. Updike" nods to
Simon & Garfunkel as
Louris ruminates about the protagonist of Rabbit, Run, "One Way Conversation" sounds more contemporary than one might expect with its dusting of electronics, and the eight-minute closing track, "Dead Man's Burden," gives him an opportunity to write with greater depth of detail and philosophical rumination, and he responds well to the assignment. Overall,
Jump for Joy feels like a collection of songs that couldn't find a comfortable spot on a
Jayhawks album or find favor with other artists, but
Louris was right to give them a home. His craft is far too strong to regard these as throwaways, and the intimacy of the home-recorded production and performances is a fine match for the material.
Jump for Joy never suggests
Louris intends this to be a grand statement or his break with
the Jayhawks, but it serves him well, and hopefully he won't wait 12 years before he tries this again. ~ Mark Deming