Review: Jake Cassman sinks into life’s watery depths on ‘Idling High’

“And this weight is weight on my chest / It has grown, become too immense / I’m too scared to know how I feel,” heaves Jake Cassman on the closing track “I’m Still Here,” off his brand new record, Idling High. The song, wrought with misery and stagnation, swells from an intimate confession to a choir-backed reckoning with self. “When did my vices become my addiction?” he later ponders. Despite everything, Cassman remains even more resolute and self-assured than he could possibly imagine. The ode serves as a perfect cap on a record that weaves in and out of his head, as he unpacks every ounce of pain, often with humor to alleviate the pressure.

“Do you masturbate, so you can fall asleep, asking for a friend,” he sings with a sly smile on “Asking for a Friend.” He later asks, “Is everyone else having sex like all the time?” That wit brings a sense of relief for the album’s overarching excavation of loneliness and depression, feelings that wreak havoc on his senses and ability to live in the world. “I think I’m happy just to be a fucking guy,” he scoffs on “I Think I’m Happy,” a static blow-out. His honesty is refreshing. In exposing raw nerve endings with the more visceral moments (“Controlled Burn,” “Anna, I’m Not Interesting,” “Can You Be OK?”), he allows himself to actually feel in an enlightened way, transmitting an urgent yearning directly into the listener’s eardrums.

With “Trying to Mourn a Friend of Mine,” a twisted, side-winding slither in the darkness, Cassman puffs up like smoke unfurling from a burning pyre in the dirt. “Tried to straighten up, and burned himself at the stake / I’m trying to mourn a friend of mine, but he can’t get through the gate,” he weeps. Reminiscent of Bror Gunnar Jansson (particularly “They Found My Body in a Bag”), the shadowy moment serves as Cassman’s best moment on record. From the fangy, blood-dripping lyrics to its musical shimmy, it suffocates and leaves you gasping for breath.

Through Idling High, Jake Cassman emerges as an essenntial, must-watch voice in Americana. Whether through smartly tangled humor or soul-piercing observations about humanity, he doesn’t avoid the toughest parts of being alive and wishing you were dead (but not really dead). One thing is certain: you won’t be able to forget it.

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