Review: Jacob Collier – Djesse Vol. 3

What’s up music heads! We should be back to our regularly scheduled releases. Here is the review:

Jacob Collier is a singer, multi-instrumentalist, and composer that is known for his reharmonization techniques in his music. He loves meshing different genres into his music from jazz to pop to classical; he is not afraid of experimentation. Djesse Vol. 3 is his fourth studio album since his start in 2011 and is the third version of his Djesse series. This new project sees guest features from the likes of T-Piain, Ty Dolla $ign, and Rapsody. From my first impression, the album is instrumental-heavy with the artist features’ vocals used more as instruments themselves. I realized over the course of the LP that lyrics are of low emphasis on this project, and the production and vocals (as the melody) carry most of the musical nuance. The album starts with an intro track of arbitrary electronic noises and effects that create a mysterious but exciting atmosphere. Here is my track-by-track analysis:

Count the People – A mixture of a catchy pop hook and a sped-up rap verse by T-Pain, showing off Collier’s reharmonization skill right away. The intertwining verses descend into a dubstep-like and electronic section that makes the pop hook by Jessie Reyez perfectly experimental.

In My Bones – This song is about the feeling in one’s bones and is extremely groovy and a great song to dance to. Extremely funky and upbeat, the vocals complement the high-pitched guitar that subtly carries the instrumental. The song ends by changing between the Collier and Kimbra rap verses and the chorus of the song. The gospel influence becomes more and more apparent as the track progresses.

Time Alone With You – A slower song than the first three, Time Alone With You sees a wonky, sexy David Caesar feature. Collier uses voice augmentation for himself to harmonize with Caesar at times in a higher-than-soprano range. The song contains generic passionate and sexually suggestive lyrics.

All I Need – In contrast, this song shows Collier’s lower range with the opposite voice augmentation compared to his last track. Mahalia and Ty Dolla $ign join this song, trading infectious vocal melodies that create an over-encompassing atmosphere.

In Too Deep – The song starts with production that feels cosmic with slivers of nature scattered throughout. With Kian Lede, this track is a great dialogue between lovers but is quite cliché.

Butterflies – A song about the “butterflies” that everybody can relate to when they are in love. Collier is the only vocalist here as he harmonizes with himself using his augmented female-sounding voice. It is short and sweet.

Sleeping On My Dreams – This song contains a very intriguingly aggressive introduction that transitions into short, low lines. These elements interchange with choral music segments as well as electronic/dance segments. The protagonist of this song admits that he and a possible lover should not commit to each other through dreamily fantastical lyrics.

Running Outta Love – Tori Kelly begins the song with a slow and passionate verse that transitions into a filler track. Obviously, experimentation is different here, but so many elements feel similar at this point that this song does not feel “genre-meshing.”

*Light It Up On Me – Light It Up On Me is an ominous, confusing, and experimental interlude of sorts that sounds like JPEGMAFIA would be tagged in helping create it.

*He Won’t Hold You – Collier uses voice augmentation again to create a chorus of multiple versions of his voice to accompany a lead-singer version of himself. He wants an ex to come and “resurrect” him. This track features an inspirational Rapsody spoken-word verse that tells Collier that she (as a character) has found freedom from being without him.

To Sleep – The conclusion song feels like an entity telling Collier to go to sleep. In the beginning, the track is acoustic and quickly transitions into the spacey vacuum the listener is used to.

Overall, Djesse Vol. 3 grew on me over time as my first impression of the album was not the greatest. Collier is a Grammy-winning artist and shows off why he rightfully deserves that title in certain aspects of this project. However, the lyrical content leaves much to be desired (not suggesting that he ever had any amazing lyrical content in his past albums). The album is essentially arbitrary love skits that have experimental production and song progression, but it does nothing to complement the lyrics most of the time. Also, every song is drenched with this cosmic vibe that becomes tiring after forty minutes of Collier; I do not believe the album could or should have been any longer. The lack of a concept or any strong theme drags this LP down; it is merely a showoff of techniques and voice-layering. However, there are some cuts that are interesting like T-Pain’s feature and the Light It Up On Me interlude-like song. Collier’s technical skill is near impeccable, but he has much to strive for to be considered a true artist in my eyes.

Score: 7.0

Favorite Songs: Light It Up On Me and He Won’t Hold You

Least Favorite: Running Outta Love