Jen Woodhouse - This Honest Age
All of the writers that join CDReviews.com eventually experience the roller coaster ride that comes from the highs and lows of receiving promotional albums. At the beginning, you invariably latch on to the first few decent albums that come your way. After you listen for weeks and carefully create the perfect review, those bands become your own, and their music frames your perception of all material to come. Stage two begins when you realize that most of the material you end up collecting turns out to be nothing more than perfunctory drivel that faithfully emulates TRL pop-punk. After you’ve had your fill of albums that fixate on three semi-catchy riffs and lean them out over the length of the entire mess, reality sets in: Yes, you get plenty of free CDs, which is nice. However, most of it is pretty poor. (Inevitably, the querulous “why do I have to trudge through all of this crap” review ensues. For references, see these reviews by Darren and Jonathon. It’s not just them… We’ve all done it.) It is at this point that you hunker down for the long haul, ready and willing to wade through a sea of mediocrity in order to discover the rare gem. As resident managing editor, my sea is larger than most. However, occasionally I too experience the joy of finding my pearl of great price. Enter Jen Woodhouse.
In This Honest Age, Woodhouse has created an album that is refreshing (blech, critical catch-all phrase that is used ad nauseam… sorry) and impressive, particularly because as an unsigned artist, she is as indie as they come. The production on the album is near flawless, which is feat enough. She caught my attention almost immediately, as she bares an almost uncanny resemblance to one of my favorite singer-songwriters, Jennifer Knapp. She utilizes the same guitar-driven melodies, uptempo disposition, and improvisational vocals. Ah yes, the vocals. Woodhouse’s voice rings out with an acrobatic flair that is just subdued enough to avoid the showy pretension that plagues most R&B singers (you know what I mean, “Super Bowl National Anthem performer syndrome”). Her music seems like singer-songwriter, in that it is driven by vocals, with instrumentation that, although good, always takes a back seat. However, there is still plenty going on in the background, so I’m tempted to classify it as more of a jazz-infused guitar pop. Think of a mix of Jennifer Knapp, Jonatha Brooke, and Joni Mitchell, with plenty of scat thrown in for good measure. The latter is the element that really grabs your attention and separates Woodhouse from the rest of the up-and-comers in her genre. What’s nice is that it really jells with her seemingly effortless delivery. Instead of forcing out scat lines with Armstrong or Fitzgerald-like moxie, she evenly and fluidly transitions between lyrics and prattling turns of phrase, all with seamless ease.
The album itself is good, if not a little top-heavy and somewhat uniform. There are not any weak songs per se, but by the end of the album, they tend to run together. I would love to see some more experimentalism take place with the instrumentation. Adding a chamber pop feel would be nice, with plenty of openings for some wind or reed instruments. It could be that I’m still just hooked on Stars, and can’t get away from my current appetite for good chamber pop, but something more is needed to push this album over the edge into the territory of spectacular. I have every confidence that Woodhouse can do so if she desires. Her talent is too visible to doubt it. The best tracks are the first two, “Breaking Point” and “Your Window.” The latter is what sold me on the album, with its sultry, sensual scat (try and imagine scat as sensual if you can… Jen pulls it off). The rest of the songs are full of graceful acoustic guitar runs and evocative vocals. Although she is completely independent, you can purchase This Honest Age at Woodhouse’s website, and if you value my judgment one iota, go do it.
