ALBUM REVIEW: Lost On You – Tigers Jaw
On their seventh album, TIGERS JAW are doing what they do best. Lost On You traces the passage of time, and reckons with the very act of existing in every version of yourself and space at once. This is where TIGERS JAW shine, handling the heartbreak and hope of it all at once.
Primary Colours ushers in luscious harmonies and alt rock guitar tones that TIGERS JAW utilise across the album. Its rich, layered soundscapes always favour a hook to enhance a lyric, and a chance for a soaring guitar solo. Housing the central concern of the album, the lyrics “I understand it all now, it’s not supposed to make sense” deal with reflection, nostalgia, and an acceptance of uncertainty. As emotions rise and fall, TIGERS JAW welcome the waves and all of the coexisting contradictions they can bring.
Ephemeral memories meld with the present act of expression on Lost In You. Anxious Blade finds them questioning anxious patterns with the impending clash of dreams and immediate fears dominating the atmospheric melodies and driving drum parts. Light Leaks Through pierces out with the overlapped vocals and rich melodies, marking “the version of the person that you miss does not exist” as a crucial statement as much as a wonderfully crafted turn of phrase. As time passes and versions of yourself change, TIGERS JAW seem to be experiencing all of this and the conflicting hurt, yearning, and hope it brings, all at once.
And truth be told, they are timeless. Head Is Like A Sinking Stone, BREEZER, and even the sonically bouncier Ghost, are quintessential TIGERS JAW tracks that feel as if they could be plucked from any part of their back catalogue. Driving and explosive drums and guitars, a delicate balance between the harmonies in Ben Walsh and Brianna Collins’ vocals, atmospheric keyboard lines and a firm sense that the lyrics are crucial to their world.
As the title track concludes the album, TIGERS JAW lay all of the album’s facets to bare. Nostalgia, anxiety, feeling lost in the world, the passage of time and how all of it accumulates in the present moment. A bouncing hook carries the track, and the refrain “i am looking for peace in a world full of doubt” closes the track to its final “Its ok”, circling back to the album’s opening track Its Ok. Clarity is found in the cyclical alongside uncertainty.
Lost On You is a glistening reminder of what TIGERS JAW have always done, and continue to do best. With countless avenues to delve into and find your own epiphanies within, their reflections on haunting anxieties and subtle hope will cut to your heart. Its emotional, its meditative, and its authentically TIGERS JAW.
Rating: 9/10
Lost On You is out now via Hopeless Records.
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