The Beginning (Jandek album)

The Beginning is the twenty-eighth album by Jandek. It was released in 1999, and was given Corwood Industries release number 0766. It is considered the final album of Jandek's "second acoustic phase".

1 Overview
2 Track listing:
3 Album cover description
4 Reviews
5 External links

[edit] Overview

Considered the seventh and final album of the "second acoustic phase" (which begins with Twelfth Apostle), The Beginning starts out much like its predecessor, New Town, and features a number of minimal acoustic pieces. Jandek almost sounds warm singing "hello, it's February" in the opening song. That leads to a re-visit of New Town's "You Standing There" (that is a little brisker, but not that different from the original). The penultimate track, "A Dozen Drops", is obviously meant as a companion piece to the song known previously as "Nancy Sings," "John Plays Drums," and "Birthday." The harrowing piece ends with the words, "God came between us" (referencing a song from Lost Cause). Lyrics on the album deal with topics ranging from payment of bills to levels of turkey juice in the blood.

As "The Electric End" brought Jandek's "electric phase" to a close, so does the fifteen minute piano instrumental track "The Beginning" conclude this phase. The track demonstrates a degree of technical skill on the part of the artist, with several surprisingly beautiful passages contrasting with harsher sections, with the sustain pedal in abundant use throughout. It ends abruptly, not unlike the song "European Jewel (Incomplete)" from the1978 album Ready for the House, as if the tape ran out during the performance.

Many listeners speculated, again, that this was the end. Afer all, "A Dozen Drops" seemed to bring an end to the "Nancy" sequence and "The Beginning" seemed like it might, in fact, be the end. It should also be noted that, at this point, the only discs available were the six albums leading to this one (and even then, Graven Image had gone out of print), meaning that there was little Jandek music available outside of private collections. Some Jandek list members speculated that the entire catalog may soon disappear, but only a few months later a re-issue of Ready for the House appeared, and the catalog was rapidly re-issued. Put My Dream on This Planet, the next new album after the Beginning, proved to be one of Corwood's most controversial yet.

[edit] Track listing:

"It's February"
"You Standing There"
"I Never Left You Anyway"
"Moving Slow"
"Falling Down Deep"
"Lonesome Bridge"
"A Dozen Drops"
"The Beginning"

[edit] Album cover description

Muted, blue overtones, similar to On the Way. Drawn curtains, a doorjamb, and an object between the two are visible.

[edit] Reviews

Yet another start for Jandek... ‘Hello,’ he sings, ‘it’s February.’ For the title tune, Jandek spends fifteen and a half minutes alone on piano! No vocals either. His hammering chords at the high end of the keyboard sometimes sound close to his hard-strum guitar, but the more melodic moments, especially the lower notes, are new sounds for this artist. By virtue of the instrument, Jandek sounds more ‘in tune’ than usual, but listen for those passages where he combines chords to somehow create bell-like sounds, or the high-end ‘crazy’ freak-out stuff that he uses very sparingly. The overall mood of the piece is somber, ‘classical’ in a broad stylistic sense, with free-style flourishes that are maybe unconscious. Pretty great. -- Piero Scaruffi The History of Rock Music Vol. 4