Jackson Scott delights with new album, ‘Sunshine Redux’ | The Triangle

Jackson Scott delights with new album, ‘Sunshine Redux’

With the kind of lazy vocals that make you feel like you took a T. Rex album and turned it into a Tumblr-approved melted crayon rainbow circa 2010, Jackson Scott’s, “Sunshine Redux” was released by Bloodmoss records April 9.

Originally signed by Fat Possum records, Jackson Scott moved to Bloodmoss after releasing his debut album “Melbourne” in 2013. Based Ashville, North Carolina, this 22-year-old college dropout pulls from a wide arsenal of musical influences to create a musical project that is a conglomeration of post-apocalyptic, distortive, drones, guitars and samples.

Covering everything in a warm cassette-tape hiss, this genre-bending album maintains a certain lightweight quality through its carefree melodies, while utilizing heavy shoe-gaze-esque effects throughout each of its 10 songs.

This album is a radioactive lollipop dipped in mud. But right when you think that you have it pinned down and classified into a single genre or idea or direction, it turns into a lizard and runs away from you. This is grungy psycho-punk throwback. This album is an avant-garde electronic conglomeration of distorted loops and samples. This album is like a chameleon wearing a fur coat; a color-changing animal covered in fuzz.

Beginning with 10 second droning entrance track “Woodworkk,” this album sends you a message about its own multifaceted nature right from the beginning. Giving you just enough to be slightly confused by the time you get to its easily digestible second track, “Broken Record Repeat,” which channels a grainy surf rock vibe, making the listener just comfortable enough to be taken off guard by the fluctuating third track, “Ripe for Love.” Beginning like a lazy Mac DeMarco single with a bright, hazy melody, this track quickly changes its colors after a slightly under minute, to become a minor dominated melody whose tempo fluctuated between highs and lows. With this, Scott provides the perfect lead in to his fourth track “Steal Me” a droning, sample-based phantasmagoria. Throwing in surprises at every turn, this album is like going through the freaky tunnel in the Gene Wilder version of “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory:” overwhelming, all-encompassing, slightly confusing but ultimately sweet.

Constantly experimenting with the collision of electronic and analog based sounds; this album provides a distinct representation of pop music’s new direction. With artists like Grimes and Blood Orange challenging pop music’s once vapid stigma, the new goal of many self-declared pop artists is to create gratifying music while utilizing a variety of production techniques to achieve new textures and sounds. Looking to artists like Mariah Carey for inspiration towards the catchier melodies that cut through blurry guitar layers and heavy of distortion, Scott produces a sound that is as modern as it is nostalgic.