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[DREAMY PIANO POP] It's easy to hear Sara Jackson-Holman's classical training on her new album, and that may be the problem. A concert pianist-turned-pop songwriter, Jackson-Holman's references to piano masterworks begin with the first track, "Monsoon," which opens with sweeping, swift piano runs à la Claude Debussy, and the string-heavy orchestral arrangements throughout give the album a cinematic quality. Thematically, though, Didn't Go to the Party is confused. Meant as a quiet, questioning exploration of self, it's filled with stock lyrics like "I feel the heat of you so close to my skin" and "the emptiness cuts through me like a knife," clichés made even more impersonal in their marriage to such lavish (though technically exquisite) orchestral arrangements. The album is stylistically off-balance as well—at one moment, Jackson-Holman channels the sexy melancholia of Lana Del Rey ("You'll Come Around"), the next the operatic drama of Adele ("Killing Me Boy"), then ends with a left-field Latin jazz groove ("Spring Bossa"). But she shines on "Too Late," the only track that scans as a straight-ahead, piano-pop ballad. Almost everywhere else, though, Jackson-Holman bogs down the album with complex ornamentation, and the result is an effort too overwrought for the bare emotions to resonate.
SEE IT: Sara Jackson-Holman releases Didn't Go to the Party at Mississippi Studios, 3939 N Mississippi Ave., with Rare Diagram and Lynnae Griffin, on Wednesday, Oct. 19. 9 pm. $5. 21+.
Willamette Week
