Jean Dawson - Chaos Now*

There’s a saying I’ve heard that goes something like ‘an artist has their whole life to write their first album and 2 years for the rest.’ I’m paraphrasing, of course, but there’s something to that, especially when an artist’s first album is so well received. For Jean Dawson I was already looking forward to Chaos Now*, his third full release (so much so that I wrote about it before it even came out!) and while I wasn’t necessarily counting down the days, I was sitting with my mouse hovering over the play button the instant I saw it listed on Spotify, after all, it’s often the second or third album where we truly see if all that artistic potential was as much as we had hoped for.

One thing you notice right away is that this is a heavier album. The guitars are crunchier, the drums hit harder, and the energy is pumped up. Pixel Bath had some hard moments as well, but it had a slight lean into the softer side of indie rock. Here tracks like, the first 2 singles, ‘Three Heads*’ and ‘Porn Acting*’ with their barnburner chorus’, ‘Glory*’ with its anthemic build and passionate vocals, and ‘0-Heros*’ with its repetitious vocal strains over the clapping percussion and grungy guitars before it burst forward with a fury and power unlike what Jean has put out before.

Oh, this could be the day that you soar
This could be your body on the floor
Oh, I know I hide behind the doors
Screamin' at the ceilin', you could feel the whole world
Oh, this could be the day that you soar
This could be the clouds at your door
Oh, I know I leave behind the floors
Screamin' at the ceilin', you could feel the whole world
Right here, right now
Standin' on the cliff and there's no way down
Right here, right now
I could hear the breeze, tell me, throw myself

It's the return to the same lifе
It gets hard to see nothing with the same light
And I wanna livе in the sunlight
Hundred degrees, I'm in the breeze, I'ma die in the sunlight
And I'm burnin' myself starin' right at you

There are so many moments to pump your fist and bang your head too here but what really makes them stand out is how seamlessly they’re intertwined with the quieter moments, not just track to track but sometimes in the same song. ‘Screw Face*’ with its echoey verse transitioning to a jangly guitar and horn driven second half is one such track. ‘Positive One Negative One*’ starts out with a psychedelic, ‘House of the Rising Sun’-esque guitar punctuated with a blast of cacophonic distortion before it changes gears completely with chaotic breakdown that shifts into a new different vibe, with heavy beats, hyped up samples and another passionate vocal performance. This track gave me the biggest head spin on the first few listens but quickly became one of my favorites.

There was a man in my attic
I hit the ceiling with a broom 'cause I've had it
There was a man in my attic (Oh, oh)
I hit the ceiling with a broom 'cause I've had it (Oh, oh)
'Cause I've had it up to here

Half my body is hangin' out the window
Teeth all gold, taste blood when the wind blow
Tell me the truth (Oh)
Are you scared of what's upstairs? I know it's you (Oh, oh)
You want hell, I'll show you hell, I'm under

Who that be upstairs?
Tauntin' me, every step, I swear
Who that be upstairs?
Tauntin' me, every step, I swear
Who that be downstairs?
Hauntin' me, playin' with my fears
Who that be downstairs?
Hauntin' me, playin' with my fears
Every step, I swear
Playin' with my fears

As hypnotic and amazing as all the heavy hitters and chaos swarmed tracks are there are a few tracks that caught me the most by surprise and really opened new levels of Jean’s genre blending skills in a beautiful way. The first track is the soft and sober ‘Bad Fruit*’ which sails in with a light acoustic guitar, gentle verse and a soaring orchestral chorus on top of a pitch perfect Earl Sweatshirt feature whose melancholic delivery and heartbroken lyrics send this track above the clouds. The others are the last two tracks on the album, ‘Sick of It*’ with its abbreviated pop-punk masterclass leading into the absolutely majestic folksy strings of ‘Pirate Radio*.’ With these two tracks as the closer, it makes me want to start the album again from the beginning.

Push my head underwater
See how long it'll hold
Way down in the deep end
Rinse the sins from my clothes
I like to think that I'm all in
I like to think that I'm there
I push my head underwater
Just to come up for air


Pull up, nobody panic
Why did you vanish?
Hold up, needed a hand and
Nobody had it
All of its golden, my body is floating
I'm still alive
My paddle is broken, I'm out in the open
I'll never die
I'll never–

Honestly, when I listened to this album the first few times, I wasn’t sure what to think of it, but then I remembered how Pixel Bath grew on me, song by song. I knew there were songs that I loved and eventually I grew to love every song on Chaos Now* for all its titular chaos and unfiltered beauty. I don’t know if I can pick a favorite Jean Dawson record at this point, as he’s doing exactly what any great artist does; expanding his sound while keeping himself grounded in authenticity and a genuinely multifaced talent.

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