PeeP on PoP- Jacob Faurholt

Jacob Faurholt- Dark Hours (Raw Onion- 2011)

~by Gabe McBride

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Jacob Faurholt is a European singer songwriter whose chilly, bittersweet, plodding, southern gothic death ballads are both simultaneously hefty and ethereal all at once.

Dark Hours treads ground fans of Will Oldham and Joe Pernice’s lonelier, acoustic moments will appreciate. Faurholt, born in Denmark and living in Germany, sounds on the album like a man not only out of place but out of time, leaving the listener with a sense that these songs could have been written in the 1920’s just as much as they are contemoporary. The album is stark and raw, and Faurholt’s subdued accent (the album is all sung in English) adds a strange, alien ether to the proceedings. Faurholt’s melancholy county-ish guitar playing is surprisingly heartfelt, and is both warm and sparse, and when he employs female backing vocals as on ‘Creatures in the Sea’ and ‘Untitled’, the songs, despite remaining simple, resonate that much more. If there is any real complaint about Dark Hours, it is that it never really seems to expand on its purposeful reticence. Admittedly, this is not necessarily a deficit, but the album would likely benefit some sonic diversity. Clearly, Dark Hours is meant to evoke an emotional response, most of those emotions being of the somber variety, but there is no denying Faurholt’s talent. Now please excuse me while I call the suicide hotline.  

For Fans of: The Antlers, Red House Painters