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Mar 18, 2015Goon is an indisputable triumph and a staggering opening statement from pop music's newest Piano Man.
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Mar 6, 2015Goon vocalizes a timelessness through the mouth of a man playing simply to start over, earnest as he’ll ever be--and getting to hear it from inside the practice room, not outside the door, makes all the difference.
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Mar 17, 2015What Jesso has delivered is a record that needs no context, that can exist outside of time and place. Jesso, in short, has crafted a masterpiece, with the only connection of real significance being between him and his audience.
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Apr 23, 2015Like his piano chops, his lyrics are no-frills expressions, ripe and ready to be groomed into something even bigger.
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Mar 16, 2015Goon isn’t an album of layers; what you hear is what you get, which in this case turns out to be something special.
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Mar 17, 2015While the narrative is compelling, this is a sound-first record, with each lyric fostering the fundamental ideals Jesso has for his music.
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MojoMar 19, 2015It's lovely stuff throughout. [Apr 2015, p.87]
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Mar 16, 2015Comparisons with Nilsson and early solo McCartney are high praise, but at his softer side it all threatens to go a bit Gilbert O’Sullivan. Yet this is a lovely debut and its innocence is a big part of its charm.
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Mar 16, 2015Goon is gluttonously full of rich sounds, but it’s the running thread that counts: That voice, and its ability to sing about experiences like they’re universal stories, not a means of self-indulgence.
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Mar 16, 2015Ultimately, Goon is a very good album, one further elevated by its terrific tale of redemption. Here, victory is belatedly extracted from the digestive tract of defeat.
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Mar 13, 2015The end result is a pretty extraordinary album, but what makes Goon really special is the future it hints at.
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Mar 13, 2015Some of the exhaustion on Goon is a lack of emotional range. The continued packaging and shrinking of love and misery for commercial consumption, something Jesso Jr. doesn't do cynically, but he does it so well and so often.
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Mar 13, 2015Sometimes the album suffers a bit from how cohesive the themes (and some of the music) are, making it hard to pick one song out from another, but it's a minor complaint. Plus, there's something refreshing about how guileless these songs are.
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UncutMar 5, 2015It takes some skill to make these sentimental songs sound this effortless. [Apr 2015, p.77]
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Mar 5, 2015There are cheesy moments--Jesso pretends to cry on 'Crocodile Tears', and 'Can't Stop Thinking About You' mimics the theme from US sitcom Cheers--but the compelling fragility of his demos remains. Because of that, Goon is a triumph.
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Q MagazineMar 5, 2015Jesso's winsome melodies and gorgeous chord changes never fail to hit the spot. [Apr 2015, p.103]
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Mar 5, 2015His debut album experiments with intense sincerity and captivating subtleties in the lyrics and melodies respectively.
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Mar 17, 2015Jesso doesn’t have a perfect voice, but his flaws are less derailments and more idiosyncrasies. These pockmarks, along with strong and engaging composition, are what give personality to a record that could been another bland adult contemporary release destined for the sale bin.
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Mar 11, 2015Goon surpasses any suggestion of mediocrity by a significant margin.
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Mar 23, 2015There's not much one can do to deny the emotional weight or the eerily '70s character of Goon; it's probably best to settle into the La-Z-Boy, flick feathered hair off of your polyester lapel, grab a box of tissues, and let it be.
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Mar 17, 2015His debut LP gathers 12 beautifully lean ballads sung in a vulnerable tenor, with vintage studio touches blended by sharp producers.
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Mar 16, 2015Goon is not perfect, but it's the imperfections and the straight honesty that bleeds through it that make it so appealing.
User score distribution:
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Positive: 38 out of 42
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Mixed: 3 out of 42
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Negative: 1 out of 42
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Mar 18, 2015
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Nov 22, 2021
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Mar 13, 2017