Album Review: “Love? Songs” by Jordy Searcy
April 17, 2020
On three separate occasions, I have had the opportunity to watch Jordy Searcy in concert. At each intimate concert, I got to see not only his audience grow but his stage presence flourish as well. Most likely traveling in a van to his next house show, Jordy lives a life marked by passion for music and people, remaining committed to meeting fans after his shows, often barefoot. An overall cool guy who seems to genuinely enjoy life. On my third concert experience with Jordy he played a mix of old originals, covers of songs such as “Eye of the Tiger” by Survivor, and songs from his upcoming album. There wasn’t a lot of theatrics, no crazy light show, no fireworks, just good music and fun people, which left me eager for Jordy to release the album. Nearly five months later, Jordy’s Valentine’s Day release “Love? Songs” was released and showed his songwriting growth, his down to earth perspective, and provided fans with eight new songs to fall in love with.
Searcy starts off with “Why Can’t We Be Friends?” which vocalizes the frustrations of things getting weird between a girl and a guy, ruining the friendship. From Jordy’s perspective, if there can’t be a relationship that comes from him knowing a particular girl, at least a friendship could still be there, but as any young love bird would know, sometimes things don’t work out and people often respond by distancing emotionally, making things awkward.
From that upbeat number, Jordy moves on to “Better” where he wrestles with the realization that by liking some people, he is revealing that he actually does not love himself. “I love you cause I don’t love me, I don’t think I deserve better” shows how we put ourselves through torture over someone when that person wasn’t even good for us in the first place. Different vocally and instrumentally than the rest of the album, this song sheds light on the pain of love rather than the pleasure of it.
From those two wrestling ballads, the album moves on to vibey numbers and songs to dance to. “Fire” utilizes Jordy’s seasoned falsetto to articulate how it feels to be all-in on someone, while “RICH” takes the time to tell Jordy’s special someone that he may not ever be wealthy, but he will be rich in love so long as he has her – he would rather be rich in time spent with her than rich monetarily. “Friendship?” looks at the dynamic tension between two people who have feelings for each other but don’t want to risk it considering their friendship. This song acts as the prequel to “Why Can’t We Be Friends?” where we see risking the friendship for a relationship did not work out, but putting “friendship?” over halfway through the album shows that in love there is loss sometimes, but Jordy does believe in getting back up on his feet and trying again in love.
Changing up the pace and theme is a live version of the song “Jealousy” where Jordy reflects on how most of the time, when he badmouths someone, it is really because he wants to be them. This realization that he is often judgmental and a bad friend or brother seeps into several storylines, concluding with an honest approach to the reason why he wrote a song about jealousy: “I wrote this song to make you think that I am self-aware. That I am humble but also wise and I’ve got it all together. But if you wanna know a secret, if you really want the truth, sometimes the reason I write songs is ’cause I want you to be jealous of me too.” There is a level of vulnerability with this number that makes you see every situation from multiple mindsets and agendas. During his concert, Jordy sang this one out in the crowd and it stands out as being a magical number.
Arguably the best song on the album is the whimsical sing-along “All Night” which hosts a memorable chorus that will stick in your head but in the very best way and easygoing melody which talks about the long nights of fun you spend with a person. Concluding the album is the song “favorite days” which remembers the simpler times with the people Jordy loves most all set to a beautiful tune on piano.
Overall, the album shows how polished Jordy has become as a songwriter and musician. As a hopeless romantic myself, Jordy’s whimsical love songs articulate the excitement and anticipation but also the realistic nature of heartbreak and awkwardness post-break up. Were we to get a new Jordy Searcy album every two years, the musical world would not complain. As of right now, Jordy leads the fight in supporting out-of-work artists, clinging to the roots of making music in his van. You can see these Instagram livestreamed concerts every Tuesday at 9:30 p.m. CST. I hope you join in on a show and be on the lookout for more great, authentic, and down-to-earth music like what we see throughout “Love? Songs” from Jordy.
Landen believes the human experience longs to be expressed; through our art, our labor, our songs, our storytelling. As a published playwright, author, and poet, he enjoys expressing his little chapter of the human experience through his writings and is thankful that the SA blog allows him to do that. He is published in numerous magazines, literary journals, and has several plays published by Off the Wall Plays, an online play publishing house.