Jeremy “JayWood” Haywood-Smith went through a lot, like all of us, in the last three years but he had an added gut punch to the mess – the death of his mother in 2019. He, again like all of us, wanted to put those times behind him, but he realized he needed to take an honest look back to move forward, which inspired the name of his newest album, Slingshot.
The album’s overarching story takes place in one day and covers topics ranging from childhood to religion to racial violence, and the musical styles across the record cover as much ground, if not more. “God Is a Reptile” is a bumping, thumping track with psychedelic guitar flourishes and trance bass while he encourages us to not beat ourselves up over trivial crap. In fact we should, as the next track suggests, “Pray, Move On.” “All Night Long” seems to skewer people who will party their lives away while the planet crumbles around them. The fact that JayWood makes it a lovely dance track only emphasizes the ironic point.
“Just Sayin'” has JayWood and Ami Cheon singing us a danceable Zen lesson with funky grooves and lyrics like “I’m not thinkin’ ’bout the future. We can’t go down that path. ‘Cause I’m just rooted in the here, the now, the black, the brown, the truth…” “Is It True (Dreams Pt. 3)” has a great mix of hand percussion, processed beats, soothing bass, clockwork guitars, and pulsing synths as JayWood wonders if love is real. His vocals get trippy and drippy on “Kitchen Floor” – a lyrically scalding track that has JayWood shaking up white folks, black folks, his friends, himself, and apathy in general.
“Shine” (with co-vocalist McKinley Dixon) is a plea let black people just live their lives. “Tulips” seems to be a song directed toward a lady who JayWood sees at church now and then, but it might be directed toward God – who really is the same person. He encourages us on “YGBO – Interlude” that “If you’re healing, you’re gonna be okay.” “Thank You” is a song for his “dearly parted” mother and other people he’s lost, and we’ve all lost, in the last three years. “I just want to thank you for the best years of my life,” JayWood sings, and you can’t help but clap along with him. His lyrics about dealing with grief are spot-on: “Here’s hoping time will help when feeling low. Here’s hoping it’s not that bad thinking you’re in heaven now. So I’ll just keep my head in the clouds. Seems hard to go down roads I’ve never known. Seems hard to flow forward, not thinking about what happens now, but Imma do my best to make you proud.”
Amen.
Keep your mind open.
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[Thanks to Sam at Pitch Perfect PR.]