Im Not As Good At It As You

The upcoming album ‘Im Not As Good At It As You’ from Jenn Ghetto’s ‘S’ is a wonderful collection of folkish type experimental creations. Tracks from the release have just been added to the Channel 2 playlist and as far as I know the album is due for release on 08/04/10 through Own Records. .

Show-goers who witnessed Jenn Ghetto making her solo debut as S in Seattle a decade ago were quite nearly as emotionally invested in her performance that night as was she. It was well-known among the gathered crowd that the songs Ghetto was to play weren’t really ever meant to have been heard publicly. This was material the former Carissa’s Wierd singer had written quietly, and recorded privately, over a period of two years on a four-track in her bedroom. The club was pin-drop quiet that night, and the crowd hung on her every note and word as a visibly shaking Ghetto (who often broke out in nervous laughter mid-tune) stood alone on stage with her guitar and delivered an exquisite set, each song raw in inspiration and highlighted by turbulent tempo-changes and complex structures. The wild applause offered up by the audience at the end of the show took Ghetto by complete, somewhat embarrassed surprise. Her humbleness was wholly authentic and refreshing.

On a friend’s label, Ghetto soon released an album of those fated four-track recordings called Sadstyle. It was critically-acclaimed, and copies sold-out quickly. Her sporadic live performances were always packed and her fans?international and devoted?had to wait four years for the next S record, entitled Puking and Crying. Released in 2004 on the Suicide Squeeze imprint, it was a stark difference in sound from that of Sadstyle. The disconsolate tone of the lyrics had been replaced by a new sense of brutal awareness that people are not always what they seem, and the album’s title served as an opening salvo that Ghetto would not be any pulling punches this time. And it wasn’t just the music that had changed: S had evolved into a three-piece featuring Austin transplant Josh Wackerly, as well as Ghetto’s bandmate in her speed-metal (yes!) side-project, Crictor, drummer Creighton Barrett (now of Band Of Horses).

S played a handful of shows on the heels of Puking and Crying, and Ghetto then put down the guitar, thinking that would be her last record. Five years later fans can now look forward to a new S album, im not as good at it as you, coming out on the Luxembourg-based label Own Records. Much like Sadstyle, the songs are deceptively sparse, though Ghetto’s breathy vocals are often layered with achingly-beautiful harmonies. The multi-directional guitar lines and break-neck tempo changes are again in effect, but it’s the maturity of the songwriting as a whole that makes this collection stand out from its predecessors.

Im not as good at it as you opens with “Wait,” a collaborative effort with two of her former Carissa’s Wierd bandmates: co-founder Mat Brooke (past of Band Of Horses and currently of Grand Archives) on banjo and ukulele, and Sara Standard on violin. Gorgeous doesn’t even begin to describe this pledge to friendship, and ultimately, unwavering loyalty to one’s self. (It’s the only studio-recorded track on the album, done with the help of Ben Kersten.) The songs that follow are classic S, shining with Ghetto’s singular ability to write lyrics that are devastating in their honesty and unfettered in their elegance. The issue of relationships, and whether they should be cultivated or abandoned (be they with people or substances), is the prevailing theme of im not as good at it as you, a smart, artfully-crafted new album for all the patiently devoted and those soon-to-be fans of S.

Track List:

Wait 03:38
Not A Problem 02:48
Away Around This 03:21
Save Me 03:32
This Is Love 03:24
Save You 03:34
We Are Not Friends 03:46
The Message 02:03
This Way Always 03:51
R.I.P. Calgon 04:28
Through It All 03:21
Outro (the agony) 05:25

www.myspace.com/sghetto
www.ownrecords.com