All The Ways That I Fail You by Jonathan Allen Wright
Thoughts on the new album by an artist who continues to improve his craft.
Hi Pal,
It feels a little strange that this is the first album review I’m writing for a Jonathan Allen Wright (stylized here as JAW) album. Anyone who has been reading this newsletter for a while will probably have seen his music pop up at one time or the other. His 2022 album, Doorways & Tombstones, was a landmark in his discography because it felt like he began to define the foundational elements of his sound — at least for this season of his journey as an artist. This new album builds on those established sonic cornerstones and delivers an engaging listening experience.
All The Ways That I Fail You starts off with a title track which is always an interesting choice when I see this approach on albums. One of the things I’m really particular about on albums is track arrangement and how the songs connect with one another.
For this album, “All The Ways That I Fail You” works as the opener because it defines the lyrical themes for the rest of the songs. It’s a song that speaks about wrestling with feelings of failure in our relationship with God. As one of the earliest singles from the album, I’m surprised by how much the anthemic chorus still moves me every time I give it a listen.
As someone who sometimes feels burdened by keeping in touch and phone conversations in general, “Give Me A Call” is a song that feels like it was written for me. It’s very retro indie rock in sound and has a nostalgic air to it — something that can be said about most of the album. At its heart, it is a song about bearing each other’s burdens, something that we are called to do as believers even when it may not be convenient for us.
“Another Day” was the first single he released off this new album, and the song has not lost its appeal. A song about the dangers of procrastination has no business sounding this cool but that’s what you get with JAW, I guess. On a serious note, I really appreciate how the messages of his songs never get lost in the music. For an artist whose music has a lot of 80s nostalgia/retro-wave themes, the songs are written and produced to keep the lyrics in focus. As someone who consumes a lot of music in these genres, I know that’s not always the case.
Featuring Mudhouse on “Easy To Believe” warmed my heart because they are one of my favourite new bands. It’s a song that speaks about growing in faith, comparing the earlier days of our Christian lives with the challenges that we tend to meet along the way. I really connected with the words:
…as you grow
your faith shows
it’s got a long way to go…
Mudhouse brought their wonderful harmonies to the song and it’s one of the standouts on this album for me. In “State of Us and Politics”, we have a song that addresses some political issues that affect the church as JAW draws a little inspiration from post-punk revival sensibilities. I am not American — nor do I live in America — so it is difficult to say that I can relate experientially to most of the problems alluded to in this song. Nonetheless, I understand them and can connect them with some of the experiences in my own part of the world.
On his previous album, there was a song called, “An Industry” that spoke about the Christian music industry and the conflicts between being a believer whose central call is to worship God and the burdens that come with being an artist in an industry.
Most of JAW’s songs are introspective and relational in nature and although songs like these deal with more external issues; he never deviates from this perspective. He isn’t singing simply for the sake of social commentary but instead, he is bringing to our consciousness what the believer’s approach should be to these things in our personal lives.
I think “Control” is objectively the best song JAW has written, so far. Music is a fascinating art form because sometimes, it defies all our logical explanations. This song is not his most technical expressive in a musical sense, nor is it particularly profound or theological astute from a lyrical standpoint. It’s a song that simply explores what it really means to surrender to God. Still, somehow my first impression of the song was “Yes, this is the one.”
Christlikeness is the focus of “That’s Not Jesus” and it reminds me of the book of James in the Bible and the apostle’s heart for the practicality of the Christian faith, expressed by selfless and sacrificial love, rather than empty religious professions and insincere posturings of piety. It’s both instructive and corrective in the way it tackles the believer’s heart while still managing to stand as a fun indie rock tune.
“Dealing With Myself (Reprise)” closes the album as a reprise of its predecessor. As the title suggests, it feels like JAW’s personal response to some of the hard sayings of the former track and a determination to be better. I also like how it seems to offer an answer to the emotional leanings of the album with a reminder of Christ’s thoughts on some of our perceived failures inspired by Matthew 25:40:
…If you’ve done it for the least of these, you’ve done it for me…
…If you loved all of the least of these, then you have loved me…
For an album that is less than 30 minutes in its runtime, it is surprisingly packed and has a lot of things to say. Often times when a record is this dense, I have a tendency to highlight a lot of lyrics, but, I have chosen to keep that to a minimum on this review.
When it comes down to it, All The Ways That I Fail You needs to be experienced by its listener. For an album that draws so deeply from personal experiences, Jonathan Allen Wright still finds a way to take himself out of the picture and point people to Jesus. That is the most impressive thing about this album for me.
As a longtime fan of his music, I had no doubt that he would continue to improve his craft and this album is a testament to the growth of a musician that I have come to respect a lot.
Genre(s): Indie Rock, Indie Pop
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That’s it for today.
Catch you soon!
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