Anointed a blues-guitar prodigy earlier than he was sufficiently old to drive, 40-year previous Austin, Texas, native Gary Clark Jr. has spent a lot of his profession pondering exterior his main style, and his newest, JPEG RAW, sounds greater than ever just like the music Clark needs to make fairly than the music people assume he makes.
Since as early on as his second album, the underrated 2015 assortment The Story of Sonny Boy Slim, Clark has embraced the whole lot from fuzzy rock to funk to Prince-ly psychedelia. JPEG RAW continues his unending quest for brand new hearth, as he works with longtime collaborators (guitarist Zapata, keyboardist Jon Deas, bassists Elijah Ford and Alex Peterson, and drummer J.J. Johnson) in addition to some iconic veteran ringers (see under). Dude is unquestionably in his the whole lot in all places period.
After Clark’s 2017 cowl of the Beatles’ “Come Collectively” (maybe the one optimistic factor to return out of the Justice League film) grew to become a pop hit, his numerous 2019 album, This Land, felt like one thing to construct on as soon as he hit the street, however Covid saved him at dwelling and, like the remainder of us, antsy.
Began throughout lockdown, completed within the final 12 months of Clark’s thirties, and co-produced by longtime Austin collaborator Jacob Sciba, JPEG RAW is each a musically dense snapshot of an American stoner dad simply attempting to focus in a world that enables for something however, and an album that amalgamates an array of sounds, influences, riffs, and samples whereas nonetheless discovering room for the searing guitar solos that made his fame.
Opener “Maktub” skips and swings like a muzzy Malian desert blues observe, Clark and Zapata stacking up guitars whereas a annoyed Clark declares “We gotta transfer in the identical path,” leaving the listener to guess the place. The title observe (which refers to a sort of digital pictures format) folds in samples of the Jackson 5’s “Maria” and Thelonious Monk’s “Hackensack,” whereas tracing a pair from a being pregnant to parenthood.
Stevie Surprise brings his voice and a Clavinet hook on “What In regards to the Kids,” whereas George Clinton throws down on the laid-back banger “Funk Witch U..” On the epic, multipart nearer “Habits,” Clark begins off sounding like Jason Isbell, a fellow roots rocker who, like Clark, has expanded the boundaries of his sound as typically as potential. And lest you assume he forgot his roots, “Don’t Begin,” with visitor vocals by Valerie June, and “This Is Who We Are,” that includes singer Naala, do what Clark does greatest, making thunderous blues sound just like the music of tomorrow.
