Self-described as “Apocalyptic Pop,” Jackson Scott’s first foray into the world of a full length album comes across very honestly as a first foray into a full length album. I’m aware that comes across as a cowardly way to begin a review, but I’m just being blunt. The album is good, not great. It is coherent as a single piece, has singles that can be pulled and listened to on their own, but when only two of your tracks break the 3:00 mark, you show some glaring downsides. While length is not a great metric to determine quality, it does distinguish between the ability to make songs and sounds; this is mostly sounds. Many of the tracks cannot stand on their own and come across as awkward interludes that touch here and there like opening track, Only Eternal (1:30), and middling tracks Wish Upon (1:20), and Any Way (1:55). Any Way, is probably the most mainstream sounding track, but it comes and goes so quickly that I barely have time to realize it’s on before it’s over.
The first half of the album slips by as an opium laced dream, while the second seems to pull away from that into more lyric driven opium laced dream. The whole album can be listened to on loop two times before you realize it ever ended or restarted. While this may be an accomplishment, in and of itself, it doesn’t give it much holding power.

Jackson Scott “Sandy” (Album Version)

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Reminiscent of some of the more obscure early Deerhunter works, Scott does a nice job of threading a low-fi sound that harks back to experimental 60s and 70s music into an acceptable pop routine. He mixes in a lot of different sounds that always seem to overlay a constant controlled feedback that ties the album together from end to end. The final track, “Sweet Nothing” seems to pull back to the styling he begins the album with, only this track has words. It’s a nice wrap around and finish to an album that builds well and stays, mostly, in one lane.

Jackson Scott’s not there yet, but the foundation for something great to be built has been laid. If Scott can build on top of this, then he has a bright future creating music. It just feels more like I’m listening to studio work that is waiting for the rest of the band to fill out. Keep working Mr. Scott, I am intrigued at what you can build from this.