(Independent, Dec. 2007)

I was going to write about this album last night, but I ended up being a offered a free ticket to see the Raptors (they destroyed Vince Carter and the Nets, by the way). That said, last week I promised to delve further into Olivier Jarda’s debut solo album, Diagrams (when I featured the lead-off track, “Victorian Faces” as my song of the week), so here I am—better late than never.

Thankfully for me Diagrams is an album that I’ve pretty much been listening to non-stop—something to which my Last.FM widgets and profile will attest—and, given its overall quality, I doubt that’s a trend that will cease anytime soon.

Coming out of nowhere for me personally, as I’m not familiar with Jarda’s previous band, The Turnstiles (which has gone into hibernation according to his Myspace), Diagrams immediately struck me as a confident and well-crafted release. Of course, that’s not to say that he comes across as infallible in his lyrics, as these tracks each display a palpable sense of vulnerability that is easy to relate to. Take “Don’t Wake the Baby” for example, as Jarda asserts the sympathetic prediction:

“We’ll break each other’s hearts and nurse each other’s wounds and make each other cry and wipe each other’s tears until we die.”

In fact, while demanding attention by being front and centre in the mix, Jarda’s very vocal presence is rife with introspective vulnerability. If I had to pin it down I’d liken the sound to that of The Shins, or Destroyer, though there’s also a youthful exuberance and longing at play here, as on “Bomb Shelter” (“You shake her knees anytime you please.”) or the rollicking “Tropical Medicine.”

Of course, at the end of the day there’s no reason to over-analyze the excellent tracks on this album, as lyrically fertile as they may be, as you really just ought to sit back and enjoy it. In fact, the ever-present engaging melodies of tracks like “Indigen” or “The Disappearance of the Great Adekunle” make this a very rewarding task.

Don’t sweat it, you’ve got plenty of time to delve deeper, as Diagrams not only stands up to repeated listens, it demands them.

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Check out the previously featured standout track, “Victorian Faces,” and delve a little deeper into Diagrams below:

Olivier Jarda - Don’t Wake the Baby

Check out Olivier Jarda’s Myspace for more info or grab a digital copy of Diagrams here.