J.Edmond 2026
Dear Therapist, What’s Eating J.Edmond?
To adjust to the fragility of life, an imaginist from Prospect, Connecticut, projects simple joys over his cityscape journey towards the bright future.
Sometimes you eat the bear, and sometimes the bear eats you, but the psychological burden this bear of a man is bearing has to be balanced much more carefully. Sculpting his creative identity first with the "City Walk" single and then with the "Isolated Dew" EP before a full-length album emerged, and carrying over a couple of pieces from one release to another, Jeremy Edmond almost got sidetracked by personal issues only to let what could threaten a lesser mortal’s peace of mind make him stronger. Neither a heart attack nor an autism diagnosis – referred to on the “Dear Therapist” cover by a lightning bolt and a rainbow – derailed the American musician’s intent to bring his urban poetry and catchy tunes to the listeners, many of whom should find the artist’s mental and emotional struggle rather relatable.
Not for nothing there’s a question to begin the tête-à-tête, and the gently insistent “What Are You Afraid Of?” drowns J.Edmond’s soft voice in Fernando Perdomo‘s multilayered arrangement, its acoustically tinctured thickness and instrumental swirl perfectly reflecting the singer’s inner turmoil and bolstering his desperate delivery and an occasional conversational turn. So though the record’s title track seems like a jubilant sequel to “Oh! You Pretty Things” while concealing the artist’s anguish behind the Mellotron wall, the resurfacing “Some Way” and “Search Lights” – a sax-smeared pop number and a riff-laden glam stomper – acquire a fresh context here to distinguish his serene past from the storm that the heavily vibrant “Dreams” is brewing via the throbbing bass and Jeremy’s half-screamed vocals. However, if the slider-caressed “Living The Dream” finds him in a lyrical mood, the cut’s romantic details feel quite brittle, but “Talk (I Suppose I Need To Take A Break)” opts for retro-psychedelic colors to paint Edmond’s cautious optimism, and the nervously groovy “Listen In Now” takes his start-stop buoyancy a notch further.
Ignoring J.Edmond’s cry for sympathy in “See There” can still be a mistake, no matter how sweet his melodies are and how alluringly “Tie Back Beginnings” deals with existential loose ends until “Never A Chance” wraps it all up with a mighty guitar twang and a demonstration of a full scope of the Connecticuter’s range as a warbler and composer. A cathartic success, “Dear Therapist” is a precious work.
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