jeru

Sam Means returns with a format that’s a bit catchy, fun, emotive, yet a bit sad–forgive the puns. The songs are concise, leaving a little room for wanting more… The album starts off immediately reminiscent, melancholic, and yet with a groove and melody that gets into one’s head, the horn and piano blending into a lovely tune on How To Sing. The next track, We’re Alone, has a much more downtempo mood, “we’re alone when the lights come on (take me down to the river)” says all it needs to say, a simple chorus that evokes everything it needs to evoke. Listening to The Format so long and wondering what happened to Sam after Nate separated and went his way, I wondered if Sam would ever make music again, I just feel bad that I missed it by a few years… It’s reminiscent of The Format in a lot of ways… Especially with the dancy and groovy Other Side Of You, it’s contrasting highly with We’re Alone, and has a much more upbeat tone and cynical “it’s a whole lot brighter on the other side of you” chorus line…

The album is looking backward, wondering what went wrong, wondering what could’ve happened differently, and with lyrics that hit, the emotional pangs are strong with this album. The dancy tracks, Other Side of You, Calina, and All I Ever Wanted are fun and enjoyable, with the same cynical lyrics, contrasting the happy with the sad–a rare quality. Means succeeds at continuing his original sound refined with The Format, yet hearing him still so dang sad after all these years makes me sad, I hope the best for him…

It’s the only road to travel on,
so much easier than sitting home.
Any way you wanna go, you go back home.