Coming of Age in the 1980’s and Introducing Tobias Jesso Jr.

Tobias Jesso Jr.’s debut album, Goon, came out in 2015 but the music is timeless so don’t worry about being a little late to the party. Truth be told, I judged this album even before I heard it but in a supremely positive way because the name reminded me of The Goonies and Tobias looks like he could have been in an alternate version of E.T. if Elliot was a 6' 7" bashful Canadian and that BMX bike might actually hold his weight. We can dream. But the music is good. His songs have a 70’s Harry Nilsson vibe and he sings like Randy Newman on a few tracks about love and breakups and moving to Hollywood and the vacuous fame-whoring culture there killing him and the world ending and having an imaginary daughter who sort of saves him or doesn’t. Good, good stuff. He used to play guitar in a few bands but after some personal tragedy stuff, he moved up to rural Vancouver and taught himself how to play piano at 27 and now he’s co-writing songs with Sia and Adele so his weird, retro star is clearly rising. I highly recommend getting acquainted with Jesso Jr. via his ‘Take Away Show’ videos, where it’s just him and a piano in a dimly lit bar and he’s worried before singing because he doesn’t know if he can hit the high notes and there’s a sexy blond girl in a mid-riff at the bar ordering drinks and she’s quietly smiling with stars in her eyes as she waits for a drink and he’s singing, yes, hitting the high notes as other oblivious patrons keep chatting and smoke from cigarettes wafts up in the air and somewhere, far off, a boy flies in front of a big bright moon with an alien in his bicycle basket and nobody, I mean nobody, rides up Troy’s bucket.