Rating: NNNN
Jackson Scott is a 20-year-old UNC dropout still residing in that school’s idyllic town of Asheville, North Carolina. He’s really into early Weezer and cites Syd Barrett as his biggest music icon. He records all his music on a four-track tape recorder and then plays it back into GarageBand.
His debut album (named after his street, not the city in Oz) is a charming collection of lo-fi bedroom pop ditties that has the thematic naïveté of someone who’s just left his teen years and hometown behind. The songs follow a straightforward structure: simple circuitous guitar lines and pitch-shifting vocals.
But if you’re doubting the complexity of Scott’s music, look no further than Sandy, the seemingly sweet tune that’s actually about the Sandy Hook shooting. These moments demonstrate Scott isn’t as blissfully unaware as he lets on. Young college dropout, yes. But he might become your next musical crush.
Top track: That Awful Sound
