David Jacobsen’s newest CD “Begin the Chagrin” is an album of humorous and melancholy songs about the loser—in art, love, and life in general. It’s his ninth album released, though Jacobsen had been writing and producing music for the past 15 years.
Most of the songs on the album are acoustic, and the songs range from whimsical, like “Your Sister” for example—about a guy falling in love with his girlfriend’s sister—to “Do You Want Fries With That?” which deals with the monotony and internal defeat that comes with working full time at a fast food restaurant.
Overall, this isn’t really “my” type of music, but that definitely doesn’t make it bad. He clearly has a voice, and can use it very well, as well as having a witty mind and observant thought process. I honestly haven’t heard anything like it before, and I enjoyed exploring the album and listening closely to the lyrics. I appreciate the freshness of his songs—it’s worlds different from the music we hear on the radio, which glorifies drinking too much and staying out too late. It also greatly differs from “my” music—which, for the record, are really just angry songs written by angry men (usually with beards) who, when you get right down to it, are just angry at their dads.
It was refreshing to hear music that kind of speaks the truth in a less bitter manner than what I’m used to, and was a very good in between type of genre to explore. I recommend you check it out. You can search “Begin the Chagrin” on youtube, or visit his website to explore his older music and read about who he is at http://davidwj.com. If nothing else, it’s an escape from Justin Bieber’s “Sorry,” and I think we could all use that.