The Door Behind

The Door Behind is the 38th release by avant-folk/blues singer/songwriter Jandek, released by his own Corwood Industries label (#0776). It was his third release of 2004 and came out on the heels of his debut live performance in Scotland on October 17, 2004.

[edit] Overview

Though overshadowed by Jandek's first ever live appearance in Glasgow, Scotland (later released as Glasgow Sunday), The Door Behind in fact continued a series of albums about a romantic relationship that began with the previous album, The End of it All. That album was all bliss, as the recluse found himself happy and devoted, a feeling that continues (lyrically, at least) on this album. Really, it may be best to think of this sequence as a modern-day equivalent to what Roman writer Catullus was doing two-thousand years ago. It's the chronicle of an intense relationship, and the first album is its happy, "I feel so in love" days, a feeling that continues here. "Do you want me/I want you," the singer repeats on the opening track while the clean sound of the electric guitar makes sparse, semi-bluesy sounds behind him. The second track puts more history to the relationship, starting at a dance where they can't quite get together, and ending with "Looking for a private place/we walked into the room/and she shut the door/we held an embrace."

But, like Catullus, the good times weren't to last, and Jandek's biggest enemy seems to be himself. After all is going well, it is his own paranoia that swoops to damage the relationship. "I need to kill those squirrels running around in the top of my head," he says at one point, prefacing a rant against the lover who has brought him so much joy. So the "spiders" in his brain cause him to doubt this person, ("Are you married/are you involved with another person/do you live alone/I want to think about you") and after coming down hard on her (there's a particularly harrowing sequence where he tells someone who "eats electricity" to "go away and fall down dead" before declaring that she can be his "princess") grows obsessive. "I will never go/I’m creeping, crawling, begging at your feet," he says toward the end of the album, trying to win her back and remind her of their closeness, though she has clearly witnessed his darker side. And the resolution? "I open up your door/and I close the door behind me/and I fall down flying, flying in the air with you/and love me, I love you." But no longer is it stating that she loves him, as it did at the beginning. This leads into the desolate mood of the following album, A Kingdom He Likes.

[edit] Album Cover Description

The album's cover photo of a hairy, heavily bearded, somewhat younger Corwood Representative (presumably an excerpt from a family portrait) led to both comparisons to the White Box Requiem cover as well as some good-natured "castaway" jokes on the Jandek discussion group.