Bleachers - Gone Now

Rating:

An album that cements Jack Antonoff at the top table of heart-on-sleeve modern pop glory.

'Album' of 'the Week'

Searing with honesty and that search for something deeper, Jack Antonoff’s every move has been a captivating watch. Whether it was surging through his New Jersey punk roots, shimmering into mainstream consciousness with Fun or dazzling into life as Bleachers and debut release ‘Strange Desire’ - Jack Antonoff has always been the guy knocking on the doors of something truly special. With ‘Gone Now’, Jack hasn’t just topped the sky-high hits of ‘Strange Desire’, but taken them to a level that cements him at the top table of heart-on-sleeve modern pop glory.

Bold, vibrant and free in every essence, ‘Gone Now’ is a raw collection of the corners of Jack Antonoff’s psyche and one of the most rewarding records of the year so far because of it. Whether it’s giving a larger than life swell to the devastating examination of loss in ‘Everybody Lost Somebody’ or the chiming hits of ‘I Miss Those Days’ that manages to sound festive and electric at the same time, there’s a taste flicking around of a genius in their prime. Taking that Springsteen-soaked emotion that filed through Bleachers’ debut (and best shown again with the fist in the air defiance of ‘Don’t Take The Money’), ‘Gone Now’ jumps between eras and styles whilst sounding undeniably of the here and now. From R&B-flicking singalongs (‘Goodbye’), Beatles-esque gatherings that make you feel as if you’re gathered around Jack at a piano in one conquering force of harmonies (‘Foreign Girls’) and sugary sweet electro-pop tints (‘Hate That You Know Me’) or 80s stadium heartache (‘All My Heroes’) - it all thrives on a record that never sits still whilst always looking forward.

‘Gone Now’ can be many things. It can be a record of devastating honesty, a record of life-affirming majesty, an invite to jump aboard an untouchable journey. Or it can be all three, and that’s where ‘Gone Now’ becomes something special. It’s a record that opens itself up at every turn, not because of paralysing fear but because coming closer means so much more than that. Dipped in exciting twists and heavyweight pop hooks, ‘Gone Now’ could be the record that influences an entire generation of pop superstars and rightfully so. Jamie Muir