Jay Brannan

It’s quite a joy to have a proper solo singer-songwriter to write about for once. I don’t seem to run across many solo artists I can get behind these days and the ones that I do tend to be in bands anyway, which kind of negates things. It’s rather nice to discover then, someone who puts out entirely unique songs by himself.

On first listen, this may sound like standard enough fare, a simplistic love story with a gentle acoustic guitar. Take in the record a few times though and it becomes something so much more. Over the course of four minutes, we run from self-depreciating (“You like the guy on your iPod, not the guy in your bed”) to the vaguely vulgar (“Beating off to forever to you is a fantasy that blows”) to the ultimately optimistic (“Never believed in love at first sight, but now I think I might”). The perfect representation of the average relationship experience then.