Albums about emotional trauma are always about the end. If it’s a relationship, the album usually deals with the problems that caused the break up, and ends with some form of cathartic acceptance. While there are the rare (and often excellent) albums that diverge from this norm, the majority of them end with a new beginning. Jumping The Tracks is one of the former, but in a completely different sense. It doesn’t really tell a story about a relationship. It starts in medias res post loss, and spends virtually its full runtime wallowed in misery. “We’re coming on denouement,” a lyric sung on the first song, feels like the album’s statement of purpose.
Jumping The Tracks doesn’t really tell a story, but acts more as a compilation of songs stuck in stages 2-4 of the Kübler-Ross model (there is even a lyric “Hate comes after denial” on “There Goes My Love”). It’s an album filled with track nines on a 10 track album. There’s no closure, just emotional devastation over and over.
The best break up albums use small moments to make the relationship feel lived in by the listener. Jumping The Tracks takes a more macro approach. It makes you look at the album differently. It’s not to say that the songwriting is bad on Jumping The Tracks, it just doesn’t let the listener truly get a feel for the reasons they should be feeling sad along with the vocalist. It feels like there was a lot more room to build on here, but +/- left it open ended, expecting those listening to fill in the depths with their own emotional hang-ups and painful memories.
It bears mentioning that this is the first +/- album since 2008. Musically, the album feels somewhat dated, but it’s easily excused as they still do some very impressive work. There are hints of many styles here, most importantly post-rock. Songs like “The Bitterest Pill” and “Rewrite the Story” build and crash and pull away levels, and the album generally has a very impressive amount of variation for largely sticking to a basic instrumental palette. It’s not a feeling of nostalgia as much as it is bizarrely refreshing. In an age where most rock music has taken on an early ’90s alt or punk revivalist style, it feels good to hear a band play this style so effectively.
In this same vein is how unnaturally smooth the vocals are on Jumping The Tracks. You expect someone singing about these types of things to be ragged and hysterical. The album is so tight and well put together that it almost causes some disassociation with the subject matter. But maybe we as listeners are so used to expecting these raw and emotionally charged albums that it’s a little unfair to discount one for being so well put together. Looking at it another way, one could say that they are putting on a calm and collected face, while facing deep trauma. It’s all based on how you look at it. There was a lot of work done on the composition of this album. It shows, and to discount that just because it doesn’t align with what we expect isn’t really fair to the band.
It’s important that Jumping The Tracks is able to crash down so easily on each song. As mentioned, it’s an album about broken relationships. It’s not about angry fights or cheating spouses. It’s about those relationships you have that simply end. There’s no obvious reason, other than the fact that you drifted apart, or time changed those involved. There doesn’t seem to really be much anger past the second track (the aforementioned “The Bitterest Pill”). While it doesn’t get entirely specific, the emotions felt are mostly associated with loneliness and longing. There is a feeling of closeness that you share when you are in a relationship, and when it’s over you miss it like a drug. Jumping The Tracks largely feels like it’s an album dealing with the withdrawal of that very thing. Simply reading some of the song titles gives you a strong understanding. “The Space Between Us.” “Exorcising Your Ghost.” “Running The Distance.” They explain themselves.
On Jumping The Tracks, +/- has started a new genre. It isn’t break up, it‘s post-break up. It really never even mentions the specifics of the relationship that caused the dark emotions that the narrator feels. Jumping The Tracks simply wants to talk about the largely at-drift feeling when someone you love abandons you. It isn’t an album about losing someone; it’s an album about being lost.
While it doesn’t necessarily have the same emotional connection as other break up albums, it does stand out for taking such a focused look at one component of a relationship’s end. For being an album focused on a break up, it is almost exclusively one sided and selfish. While it ends up feeling stunted because of this, Jumping The Tracks is still an album that deserves a listen. This is largely because of this drilling down on the post relationship navel gazing. Even with its shortcomings, it still feels novel in a world flooded with similar albums because of its singular focus on this one aspect.
Review by Justin Owlett. Follow him on Twitter at @justowle.
