Lisa Jaeggi
Epic Epic
Brooklyn, NY
“Folk, soul and hip-hop come together better than manila folders and the X-Files”
Brooklyn’s Lisa Jaeggi initiates a journey into introspection with soulful energy. Jangling instruments conjure the word “vintage,” though the quickness of the album’s unassuming and subtle sense of production suggests modernity. Epic Epic, Jaeggi’s debut, features 12 tracks full of vibrant musical interplay.
“Fortune favors bold, not heavy minds from time to time/We lay ourselves too deep with weary thoughts and find no sleep.” It’s easy to miss her understated wisdom for the thoughtful rhymes, evident on her opening track, “Whether He Knows.” On “Menlike Gods” she exercises her lyricism further by channeling hip-hop – managing to include a reference to manila folders and the X-Files into her wordplay – over a progressive groove and the same unrelenting percussion found throughout the album. It’s Jaeggi’s clever songwriting that really makes her songs truly stand out, as the instrumentation mostly serves as an eccentric and fun vessel for her remarkable vocals. This musical relationship is strongest on “Heartache,” an old-timey waltz about love and the lack of it.
Jaeggi, at only 26, exhibits refreshing maturity in her songwriting without bothering to drag the listener through the depths. It’s affirming art like this that the world really needs right now. (Modern Vintage Recordings)
Produced by Eshy Gazit and Patrick Ermlich
Mastered by Tony Gillis