Review Summary: I'm a Hunter for the Real Thing
“Are my love songs lies now that the love is gone?”
The opening lyrics to the song “Chasing Spirits” reflects on the emotionally vulnerable state that candid americana/country singer Jess Williamson found herself in following the breaking up of a nine-year relationship at the beginning of the pandemic. With most of her previous material delving into the romance and love shared in that relationship, Williamson has an obstacle as to where those songs stand and whether they still carry the same meaning or if now the interpretation is wildly different. In an interview with Stereogum, Williamson exerts “they’re not lies. It’s a funny thing to sit with though. I wrote these devotional love songs about loving someone forever. I have a song on Cosmic Wink called “Forever,” that’s what I reference on “Chasing Spirits.” The lyric is “There’s the one about forever and/ Loving you in a past life/ Or whatever…but I think they change. The thing is, they change as soon as you put them out. Everyone is going to have their own interpretation of a song, and the song lives on and has a life of its own.” With the struggle of heartache, loneliness and isolation, Williamson has created a crop of songs that explore this new life in a strange new world whilst embracing her femininity and strength and casting aside what could be viewed as compliant or small and becoming emboldened with her self-worth.
What Williamson’s website describes ‘Time Ain’t Accidental’ as is a record the utilizes the images of “Long drives and highway expanse; dancing, smoke, sex, and physical desire” to explore her emotions on dating, past love and newfound freedom. Each song acts as a door opening to reveal a moment in time detailed and colored with bright, sensual and sometimes lustful, carnal imagery that hooks the listener with its honest, beautiful instrumentation as well as Williamson’s hypnotizing delivery. The opening track which so happens to be the title track describes a chance encounter with an acquaintance following the dissolvement of her previous relationship in which she has a whirlwind of a day:
“I loved your energy and the dim light
On the side of the highway in the middle of the night
Forget what they said to me, it doesn't connect
To the angel in bed with me, his face 'tween my legs.”
The song also reflects on the element of timing and whether this chance meeting came at exactly the right time where Williamson needed it or if it’s an unfortunate situation because she had to leave town the following day. It seems that Williamson leans into the former reeling that these things all happened for a reason and at the perfect time; a plethora of circumstances needed to occur so that this could happen and that’s the beauty in it.
On what can be described as the most miserable and emotionally torn song on the record “A Few Seasons,” Williamson sees herself trying to adjust to being alone and questioning if this was all her fault and why her past lover didn’t still love her. Set against reverb drenched pianos and gorgeously desperate vocals, Williamson croons about the qualities she feels others see in her.
“I was admired for my patience and strength,
I am well-known for being so OK.”
The song slowly builds and descends with soft choirs and tantalizing harmonies while Williamson pours her heart out all over the pages. Each passing line feels just slightly more punishing and self-depreciating as it spirals into this self-doubt and wonderment of how everything led to this.
“Why didn't you yearn for me like any man should?
You were the only one for me, am I no good?”
With this song not even clocking in at two and a half minutes, it wastes absolutely no time getting to the heart of the emotions at stake and delivers some truly heart-wrenching lines all coupled with a very soft, liminal and ambient backdrop.
The end of the record feels a bit more hopeful and refers to the relationship that occurred in the opening track. In reading through Williamson’s full interview with Stereogum, she described a long period during the pandemic where she resided in Los Angeles and was experimenting with dating in which she explored her sexuality and tactics of romance; but in the end it was in this small town of Marfa that she returned to at a random time that spawned a romance that felt genuine and honest. Accompanied by acoustic guitars, a drum machine and some other light percussive instruments, “Roads” sees Williamson gushing over this new romance at points as well as reflecting on the things she’s learned about herself such as her love of freedom. It’s a very lovely conclusion to a record that really does explore many aspects of a lovelorn reality.
I think where the record doesn’t do enough to deviate from other americana/country artists is in its song-writing formula. Most of songs move similarly with an obvious focus on the lyrics and vocals which leaves the instrumentals a bit dry and underdeveloped in some circumstances. Often accompanied with just a soft piano, Williamson certainly can carry the weight of the song because she is quite a capable vocalist, but I do wish that sometimes the songs would reach a stronger crescendo or explore a bit of a different avenue. A song like “Topanga Two Step” boldly utilizes a paper-thin hip hop beat to outline the pianos and vocals which is a bit clunky at times but still works decently. One of the highlights on the record is the track “Something’s in the Way” which is sort of wacky with it’s use of woodwinds and horns, but it works surprisingly well in one of the more discernibly upbeat rhythms on the album.
Overall, this record is very good if not great. It’s emotionally satisfying and incredibly relatable for those that have dealt with love-lost situations. With this being my first-time experiencing Williamson’s music, I was pleasantly surprised with just how dept and in control she is of her voice and her knack for very nuanced and pleasing melodies. The record’s shorter runtime benefits by not becoming bogged down or overly repetitive and allows Williamson to get her point across without much in the way of filler. Each story and memory that she visits in these songs feels very beautiful in a way and that’s because the album is framed very nicely and does an excellent job of ordering the songs so that the dynamics are more pronounced. I look forward to visiting some of her older material and seeing how she progresses into the future.
3.75/5
*Interview quotes courtesy of Stereogum
https://www.stereogum.com/2226280/jess-williamson-time-aint-accidental-track-by-track/interviews/footnotes-interview/#:~:text=WILLIAMSON%3A%20%E2%80%9CTime%20ain%E2%80 %99t%20accidental%E2%80%9D%20means%20we%20can%20tr ust,and%20thinking%2C%20%E2%80%9CHow%20did%20this% 20not%20happen%20sooner%3F
