JACKSON SCOTT – Melbourne
1. Only Eternal
2. Evie
3. Never Ever
4. Sandy
5. That Awful Sound
6. Tomorrow
7. Wish Upon
8. Any Way
9. Together Forever
10. In The Sun
11. Doctor Mad
12. Sweet Nothing
“Hey kids, my name is Jackson. I’m just like you. I like music ‘cause it describes this wicked and beautiful existence that we find ourselves experiencing day after day after day. Hope you enjoy the album, I sure worked hard on it.”
JACKSON SCOTT‘s debut record Melbourne hits the stores Friday September 6 and that’s your day to find the soundtrack to going insane. With Melbourne we arrive at a creepy psych-pop bedroom project that can reinforce how alone and isolated we all feel, with the help of a fuzz pedal. The twenty-year-old JACKSON SCOTT is currently based in Asheville, North Carolina. Melbourne could be a long-lost record from the early seventies, if intercepted by aliens and mutilated with various feeds, loops and vocal distortions. It combines everything from surf punk to psych elements to lo – fi.
From the creepy, yearning intro Only Eternal, JACKSON SCOTT is taking you on a psychological journey to and through some dark recesses of the mind. Evie could be a track by the ZOMBIES or the KINKS, just space everything out and add lots of LSD. The song has the singer imagining Adam and Eve as his playthings. Sandy is a bittersweet tune that references the horrifying school shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary. Everything on this record is a bit off and wonky, with plenty of feedback and dissonance thrown in, musically capturing the way you feel after a multiple day hallucinogenic bender, waking up in a cold, overgrown field, trying to piece together what happened. Fans of SYD BARRETT’s batshit-crazy-but-who-cares The Madcap Laughs will enjoy the stoned-out vocals, the drone, and the drawn out waah waah of the debut album Melbourne. Any Way is a tambourine shaker in the most classic pop tradition that sounds like the electricity cuts out halfway through.
Fans of WEEN, NEUTRAL MILK HOTEL and ARIEL PINK’S HAUNTED GRAFFITI will love the wheezy, on-helium vocals, tambourines and fuzzed out Casio keyboard tones. While the seams are obvious and even highlighted, the record is extremely enjoyable to listen to. Which begs the question: how can someone this young be this crazy? Check back to Jackson’s declaration which precedes this review: he “worked really hard on it.” And the devotion shows.