Lovers and Automatic Weapons, a Meditation Mixtape

I tell my friends all the time: don’t ask for my opinion if you really don’t want it. I have been called the Dutch Uncle, the one who holds no punches. I tell you like it is from my perspective and I don’t play nice when it comes to Spoken word/Poetry. So when my sister in stage poetics, J9, asked me to review her album, I couldn’t help but rib her a bit, making sure it was what she wanted.

… Opens with jazz, funk, rhythm and yoga. It’s an easing into a yoga asana that will hurt while you contort limbs into it, but once there, you won’t want to unpretzel to the next form. I am a feminist by heart, but am not a fan of man bashing. This is not that. This is not single mother blues, this is not super empowerment of overdone women’s ego, this is a story of what happens between people when we mesh human.

I am inside out

Peach and bone monotone

Where red blood cells ought to be

I am wearing my nervous system

On the outside

So yes

I feel you             

These are the discernible first words to impress upon eardrums. This first piece is riddled with honesty. It is metaphor-heavy in an easy language that lets the listener off the hook figuratively, and literally at the end with, “I’m not mad; just go.”

There is a seductive pull into track three with its tight bass line smooth guitar and whisper of eroticism. It’s not a whisper, actually. My mentor told me that the true erotic poems makes no mention or penetration. It’s like you left your hand print on a facial tissue so that you could only assume touch. J9 managed this skill to mask the staccato freshman delivery reminiscent of Ursula Rucker Pre “Things Fall Apart.”

And for all those who can relate with a laugh, track four starts with the declaration, “I HATE THAT LAUNDROMAT!” That was my favorite track until I heard track five. It comes in like a movie trailer you hope is the main feature and once the realization that it’s just a preview hits, you know you want to see this upcoming movie more than the one you paid nine bucks to see. Suspense driving violins that slide your buttocks to the rim of the chair.

We were young

Broken

Jaded

Convinced this world was wrong side up

And we

Were upside down

Clinging on to one another

As if our arms were nimble willow limbs…..

The more you spoke

I smelled your privilege

It emulated clothing

Like dense nicotine fog

Heavy laden dew

You were on the wrong side of the tracks

Visiting

People watching

This Gotham track has to be my favorite out of the 11 on the CD. Lovers and Automatic Weapons is something real. A narrative of love, lust, growth and life, a call to sexuality and sensuality being parented by the essence of woman. The production is not your normal expected jazz or hip-hop heavy tracks, but original music that is more ambient. Hints of D’Angelo and GZA. As the album progresses, the freshman staccato gets dropped like an American actor’s bad Spanish accent, suggesting Jessica got better in the recording process with each track. The language is as rich as the narrative itself. For more information, go to Jessica9names.com