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Maraqopa by Damien Jurado


Damien Jurado seems desirous of life these days. He shares welcome and uncharted whimsy, nearly bereft of familiar despair, with softer eyes and wider teeth on his tenth and latest album. Maraqopa is at once a declaration of openness and certitude. You can practically see dust particles delicately disperse and attach to Jurado’s boyish eyelashes on the title track, as he sings, “Your breath becomes the wind.” A version of his voice lingers in smoldering serendipity, basking the space with, “We are freeeee.” He continues: “All are welcome in,” and it harkens back to many spiritual moments in his body of work including Ghost of David’s “Tonight I Will Retire”—a sort of spiritual surrender. This time he doesn’t seem to be saying he’s ready to die, but to live.

Jurado embraces freedom and renewal on Maraqopa, and Richard Swift does a lovely job of cascading Jurado’s gracious and even playful disposition, however innately serious the delivery is. This is a side of Jurado that probably has always been there, but has never been readily offered up—Maraqopa is the achievement of cracking a smile from someone you’ve been trying for years to get to laugh.

“Working Titles” is one for the books, as Jurado details a past relationship in a discourse of accusations—the accused perceiving the pain of the accusor. The accusor can pick apart every action, every word, and with clarity, err on the conclusion that nothing was sincere. But with bulbous, whirlpooling, gospely “Ooooh’s” and snaps fringing Jurado’s words, the song transforms into the accusor softening at the accused’s unfolding propensity to understand what the accusor felt like all those years. And in this way, Jurado mints his talent for redeeming assholes, screw-ups, and the broken—“Working Titles” is the manifesto of one who understands the hurt that he hath wrought upon another person, so much so that he “becomes” the other person. As sentiments develop from, “You’re no him, but he’s you, only better,” to, “What’s it like in Washington? I’ve only seen pictures…,” in a single song, one can feel the weight of the complex mathematics in Jurado’s songwriting.

With “Museum Of Flight” Jurado embodies what he sings in “Maraqopa.” The song carries armfuls of birds with Jurado’s quaking falsetto, and dresses sweep along a big, old dance floor as he sings, “I’m so broke and foolishly in love.” On Maraqopa, Jurado has captivated his freedom.

Damien Jurado – Museum Of Flight

Damien Jurado – Nothing Is The News (Video)

All images and videos from secretlycanadian.com

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