Simon Joyner – Tough Love (CD)

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Omaha has long been fertile ground for artists who do things their own way, and Simon Joyner remains one of the most quietly essential figures that city has produced. Nearly four d ecades into a career built entirely on his own terms, he arrives at album nineteen with the kind of hard-won perspective that only comes from living honestly through the difficult stuff. For over 30 years, Simon Joyner has been an anomaly-a wholly independent artist focused solely on his craft. The Omaha-based singer-songwriter began releasing music in the early '90s and has walked an unbroken line ever since. Joyner's songs of quiet joy and heartache have impacted different generations of fellow artists, showing up as overt influence in acts like Bright Eyes or Kevin Morby, and as flickers of shared perspectives in the Lenkers, Oldhams, and Molinas that followed. Tough Love, Joyner's 19th studio album, continues this upward trend. While intrinsically linked to the personal grief of 2024's Coyote Butterfly, the autobiographical album Joyner made in the wake of his son's death, this new album explores the concept of tough love as a dichotomy applied to various fictional relationships including romantic, familial, and political. This balancing act comes through in vivid portrayals of everyday heartache and in the exploration of political rage and the betrayals of the American Dream.One of the marvels of Joyner's catalog is how his patterns don't repeat but transform. Knowing nods to Cohen, Dylan, and the Velvets have been part of his songwriting since the early lo-fi days, but the ways these touchstones get infused keep changing. While Joyner's ragged acoustic songs are in the spotlight, they're prodded by electric guitars and imbued with experimental tendencies. Rock songs split the difference between minimal grooves learned from Loaded-era Velvet Underground and the ecstatic rhythmic weirdness of Can. By the time we arrive at the penultimate track, "Anniversary Song," the ghost vocals and scratches of microtonal synth have blurred the lines between Joyner's folk singer heart and his avant garde spirit. All of this leads to the 20-minute title track which closes Tough Love, an eviscerating plunge into a seemingly bottomless pit of regret, survivor's guilt, and unvarnished grief. Borrowing a repetitious structure from Lou Reed's narrated suite, "Street Hassle," and combined with the full-side testimonial of Dylan's "Sad-eyed Lady of the Lowlands," Joyner narrates from the perspective of his departed son speaking to his father and laying out his every failure and brutally highlighting how none of it can be undone. Soon, though, this agony opens up into something transcendent, in both it's elegant imagery and ethereal atmospherics. The final moments of the album grant permission for self-forgiveness and hopefully someday, understanding. Tough Love Musicians: Ben Brodin, Caleb Dailey, Micah Dailey, Simon Joyner, Laraine Kaizer, Michael Krassner, Mychal Marasco, Megan Siebe. Tracklist 1. Annelie 2. Wild Palms 3. Drowning Man 4. Two Black Irises 5. Vagabond 6. Isn't This How The Story Always Begins? 7. Winter Says 8. Last Call For Karaoke 9. In A Room Like This 10. How To Talk To Your Man 11. Allegiances 12. Anniversary Song 13. Tough Love UPC: 4260064996428Label: GrapefruitRelease Date: 8.7.26Format: CD Show more