A showcase for great songwriting that shows sometimes the best thing you can do to gain perspective is take a step back.
It may seem a little at odds with the idea of making an album, but for Jesse Terry when it came to creating his seventh original LP, he had to take a step back from the music industry in order to move forward. “I unsubscribed from most music business newsletters and, instead, focused on reading great literature,” Terry reflected of removing himself from the Nashville conveyor belt. So Terry went to look for his own “Arcadia”, and the album was not born out of the corporate buildings on Music Row, but instead immersive songwriting retreats, secluded cabins and even in the peace of the homes of friends’.
“There’s too many voices / Sky full of pictures / There’s a taxicab river / Raging by my open door / Off to find Arcadia,” sings Terry on the title track and album opener, his words encapsulating what he went through to make the record, all while a Springsteen-esque strong beat and rocking electric guitar accompany him. ‘Burn the Boats’ offers something quite beautiful, Terry’s soulful vocals, gentle harmonies and jangling guitar the perfect combination to convey lyrics of heartache and starting anew, all the while with a secret hope for a future reunion (“Somehow, I know you’ll ride with me again / When you come ‘round, I’ll meet you where the sky begins / And right now, if you’re longin’ for the smoke / Barely clingin’ to the ropes / Light a match and burn the boats”).
On ‘Gunpowder Days’ and ‘Poison Arrow’, Terry is keen to move forward and not dwell on any darkness in his past, cleverly using the metaphor of weapons to represent his pain. ‘Somewhere In Repair’, a song about the trials of life people go through, is heavy with sentimentality in the way mainstream country songs used to be before bro-country became king, but with Terry’s delicate touch and smooth, emotive vocals, it never rings false; when he tells us to be “gentle to a stranger”, it’s moving and genuine, without a shred of insincerity. ‘Waiting Out the Hurricane’ finds Terry looking back on childhood trauma (“We were trapped in the hell between a man and his judgement day / We had a sliver of a view, huddled close underneath your bed / Our innocence ended in a symphony of blue and red”), the light of relief felt through the fact he can reflect back on it now that he’s in a better place.
‘Strong’ is instantly enchanting, Terry’s voice lilting tenderly as he assures he can be trusted to help someone out of the metaphorical dark, no matter what they may face: “You can trust my smile / When you need a spark / Believe in me, believe in me / I swear with all my might, it’s gonna be alright.” The jaunty ‘River Town’ is a take on the adage that “there’s no place like home”, while ‘Headlines’ takes aim at the evils of modern media and the clickbait society in which we live (“Headlines for the cash-in / What glues us to the screen / Headlines on an endless loop / That feeds the war machine”).
“Somewhere high upon a hill / A poet conjures up a flame / Had to face the wilderness / Had to cross a mountain range / But it was worth the sweat and blood / Just to hear the gods rejoice,” Terry sings on ‘Arcadia’ of the journey he undertook to make its namesake album, and it’s a journey that lead him to make something truly special. It may not be what’s considered utopia for absolutely everyone, but in “Arcadia” he has carved out a little piece of heaven, one that is distinctly his own, and it’s a pleasure to get to stay there, even for just a while.
