JORDAN KLASSEN plays the Dakota March 21 and the Fairmont Royal York Library Bar March 23 as part of CMW. Rating: NNNN
Vancouver songwriter Jordan Klassen starts small but dreams big on his new Kindness EP, a teaser for his forthcoming full-length sophomore disc, Repentance. It’s just four songs long (the digital version has a bonus track), and Klassen collaborated with Jonathan Anderson (In Medias Res) and Brian Chan as well as string and horn players to build lush, chamber-inspired arrangements for his poppy indie folk in the vein of Sufjan Stevens.
The components are pretty simple: guitar, piano, ukulele, glockenspiel, viola and lots of percussion. But Klassen’s voice is a nice surprise, gently occupying the mid-range before swooping into angelic falsetto territory. Go To Me and Call And Answer have bigger choruses, while the arpeggios on delicate Threads complement the lyrics, and I Am A Collector could be updated Simon and Garfunkel.
Top track: I Am A Collector
