Albums of the Year # 43 Kara Jackson - Why Does The World Give Us People To Love.

 

Sometimes you listen to an album and it piques your interest on some level almost immediately without really grabbing your complete attention. You keep listening, and find yourself being drawn in gradually despite yourself. Then suddenly, and it might be as far in as halfway though the album, it has your undivided attention and you realise, this is really special, and that you want to know more about it.

This happened to me yesterday morning with Kara William's debut album, Why Does The World Give Us People To Love. It's a record that creeps up on you in an uncanny fashion, until you're forced to admit that you're in the company of a singular and special talent and most extraordinarily that the person the artist you're listening to reminds you of most is Nina Simone. At least that's how I felt.

Making a comparison with Simone is incredible praise of course. She was one of the most exceptional vocal talents of the Twentieth Century and almost everybody pales sat next to her. I wouldn't even dream of comparing most artists to Nina. But I'm not withdrawing the comparison I've just made. Do yourself a favour and listen to Why Does The World.. for yourself with Simone in mind and you might save yourself the half an hour I spent yesterday, groping around, trying to make sense of this very special album and artist.

Musically the record is not particularly reminiscent of the generic forms that Simone was most generally associated with. It's not really a Jazz or Blues album in an particular respect. It's probably a Folk one or a Pop one. But it is a very deep one. And one of the particular discussions which it seems to be having is about gender and sexuality. Which makes it 2023 too.

This may be Jackson's first album but she certainly has form, having previously served as U.S. National Youth Poet Laureate from 2019 to 2020. I get the impression you're going to hear quite a lot about her. Get yourself ahead of the pack and listen to this record. Of course it may not remind you of Nina at all. But I suspect it may make some impression. It certainly did on me.

*Many thanks once again to Darren Jones for heading me here.