Today's Song: Jacob Jeffries Won't "Let You Down" with his Latest Piece of Pop Nostalgia

South Florida native Jacob Jeffries laces a somber thread from the unhealthy relations that draw us backward in “Let You Down,” the wistful lead off his forthcoming album ‘Añejo.’

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Listen “Let You Down” – Jacob Jeffries

We can’t help what we want. Show us again and again that a connection doesn’t serve us, and still our desires can push us back toward it again and again. Maybe we’ve tricked ourselves into believing that one little change will salvage it, maybe we just need to try a little harder, maybe we can’t explain it at all. We can be drugs to one another, providing that sweet hit of bliss before reality comes crashing down. In the wake of it all, we recognize the pattern, but can’t stop ourselves just this one last time.

Indie pop singer-songwriter Jacob Jeffries is no stranger to the pull of such a relapse. His latest single “Let You Down” pits this nostalgic yearning against bright, dance-worthy pop. Like looking through an old photo album, it highlights everything fun and exciting about falling in love while hiding the pitfalls with Valencia filters. The longer we stare, the more future possibilities pass us by while we refuse to move.

I’ve come to terms
with the end of us before
But it feels so good to be
the one standing at your door…

Jacob knows firsthand how this can transpire. “Inspired by my own outlandish notion that the same actions would miraculously yield some kind of nuanced result, I came back from Brooklyn after visiting an ex-girlfriend and… voila! Nothing was different,” he explains. “Everything still felt off and all wrong. Yet, I went back for another shot at it. Why? Because that’s what we do sometimes.” Often it doesn’t make more sense than that. Despite our best intentions, it’s easier to backslide than to move on.

Combining the jangling chords and unflinching earnestness of ‘90s alt-radio giants like the Wallflowers, Gin Blossoms, and Soul Asylum, “Let You Down” floats like a memory at the edge of consciousness. It’s an intimately personal experience perfectly captured by its accompanying video. Choreographed by dancer Jessalyn Brooks, who also features in it, the visuals bring to life the battle between desolation and our desire to return to it again and again.

Brooks dances, spins, and flits her way through vacant industrial buildings in downtown Los Angeles, bringing life to the empty rooms she passes through. Her presence hints at a longing for more, like there once was and should be something more than just her here. But maybe this is all she needs. She bursts into the waning sunlight at the video’s conclusion, taking in the infinite possibilities of life outside her memories.

Jacob Jeffries grew up in South Florida. There he released a handful of albums with the group he fronted before finally making the move to LA. Since then, he’s made his way writing music for movies and television as well as performing in the musical comedy group the Cooties.

His 2018 solo album Mother Land assembled an all-star cast of musical talent including Theo Katzman (Vulfpeck), Arianna Powell (Black Eyed Peas), Hayley Jane Batt (BØRNS) as well as Grammy-winning producer Dan Warner behind the board. Now, he’s gearing up for his latest release, Añejo, of which “Let You Down” is the lead single. With the world in turmoil though, it’s all a question of when.

One way or another, we eventually move on to something better. We just need to see beyond the lure of our past. Ultimately, Jacob explains that “Let You Down” is “a song about accepting that things just aren’t the same anymore and freeing yourself of hoping they’ll be different someday. Letting loose and letting go.”