That is what J Lind writes on his instagram about his latest single:

“Oxford Sweater” is about turning off your telephone and noticing the world however listed below are some issues I’ve observed with my telephone on, no regrets”

What follows is a photograph carousel of the quirky, the heartwarming, the mundane—an motion determine on a jellyfish carcass, a zoom-in on a headstone, an image inside an image of a digital digicam catching a person in a bunny swimsuit, a Jim-faced woman staring on the digicam with a garland of Playing cards Towards Humanity, properly, playing cards unfold in entrance of her.

You understand I noticed it within the crosswalk keeper
He was carrying neon, holding up an indication
He was passing out the peace with two fingers
One thing we agree on when it’s onerous to seek out

However J Lind’s resumé is the type the typical Joe would bristle at (it’s me, I’m Joe). Went to Princeton, Oxford – volunteered in hospice care, for a time even in India. It’s the form of resumé that virtually begs to be bragged, however while you go to his socials it’s extra of a brief bio: every thing else is music, and little moments.

See, this appears to be a part of the ethos of J Lind’s life philosophy. The whole lot funnels again into the music, and the music offers again by therapeutic. So all of the darkish and lightweight of hospice work, of spirituality versus religiosity, of hope and cynicism – it’s in his many-shaded album The Land of Canaan, but it surely’s additionally within the shrug-like simplicity of his works like “I Don’t Know” and For What It’s Value.

And that one girl had an Oxford sweater
Began seeing Latin someplace in my thoughts
It mentioned one thing like “the reality is aware of higher
Than whatchya hold your hat on, whatchya attempt to conceal“

A robust diploma of humility traces each musical stroke, regardless of how scaled again or gospel Lind goes. When he goes huge, it goes worship – kneel down, witness-the-divine, grandiosity-to-realize-you’re-small kinda sound (like my favs: “Lean Into It,” “This Too“). When it goes quiet, it goes bale-o-hay-for-a-bed easy with a rugged concentrate on the guts and the lyrics (like my different fav, “Metropolis on a Hill“).

Which is why I can say that his sound jogs my memory of his extraordinarily scattered resumé: there’s a sluggish, sincere high quality like Sting; a penchant for groove and full-scale manufacturing like Seal; a traditional people melodic tone, with a little bit of edge like The Mountain Goats‘ John Darnielle. And there’s even one thing that takes me again to my highschool days, once I nonstop listened to the Killers – who, like J Lind, take inspiration from the very best of Christian rock. However I’m additionally comfy admitting none of these actually get near the sound both.

So “Oxford Sweater” is considerably era-defining in what it does in a different way: strike an ideal stability. The tune begins simplistic, but brilliant, and scales right into a extra advanced manufacturing that rounds out the sound. Lind conjures photographs of a form crossing guard, a close-by girl in an Oxford sweater – the small photographs that flit previous him on a low day that remind him of the easy pleasure of residing:

And I, I flip the lights out

His voice distorts, the synth sounding out:

After which I heard it within the subway station
Somebody enjoying trumpet, I used to be strolling by
The six was coming simply to check my persistence
Tied up like a puppet, working out of time

The ecstatic horns deliver the tune all of the sudden to life, as if shade bled out of the pen – joyous and brilliant. Lind’s voice goes hushed with rapt consideration as he notices a younger boy with extra presence than his mum or dad:

A child was tryna get his mother to hear
She was caught up in an algorithm way of thinking
He was discovering what his mother was lacking
Hope he tells her all about it on the opposite aspect

After which, as if delighting within the second alone he continues out,

And I, I flip the lights out
And the place would I’m going now?

The pure gratitude on this tune bursts vibrantly forth, in pure reverie. It’s like his different songs: easy, honest, but awe-struck and ornate. Nevertheless it reveals a level of maturity that’s so satisfying in a musician who’s labored at his craft, as a result of nothing is straightforward for lack of care, or loud to boast—all match of their good place as a illustration of good, easy pleasure.

With extra on the way in which, one can’t assist however hear, and hope to expertise that very same reverie for the mundane—for a quick retreat, and pause, from the “algorithm way of thinking.” And with J Lind’s music, one can at all times depend on somewhat little bit of therapeutic.