A soothing and haunting hypnosis, Jordan Lehning’s enchanting “Static” offers a rich release of tension as the Nashville artist poetically pieces apart the pain of life and the fear of accepting death.
Stream: “Static” – Jordan Lehning
“Static” is a promise of the stasis that awaits.
An ethereal wave of cool, calming sound washes over the ears as Jordan Lehning’s latest single gets underway. Musing over life and death, the Nashville artist crafts a stirring, tranquilizing moment of intensely intimate reflection – the kind of deep introspective thought we otherwise save for the dead of night, when the distractions of the day have faded away and we’re finally left to our thoughts. A soothing and haunting hypnosis, the enchanting “Static” offers a rich release of tension as Lehning poetically pieces apart the pain of life and the fear of accepting death.
Ever lost your way around the block
Ever found yourself at a loss
There’s a jet stream cutting up the sky
Crossing x’s and marking spots
Are you weak from the heavy lifting
Are you tired of the dead end lines
Cause some sucker’s been feeling under
Can we come to no compromise
Atwood Magazine is proud to be premiering “Static,” the lead single and opening track off Jordan Lehning’s forthcoming fourth album, Three Colored Wall (out August 6, 2021). The Nashville-based singer/songwriter and producer/arranger, Lehning captured our ears and our imaginations with last year’s cinematic third album Little Idols, which Atwood Magazine described as “an intimate and expansive brush of alt-folk grace” and a “musical journey you can completely immerse yourself in.” A concept record written in the style of a short film and approached from a director’s perspective, Little Idols tells the non-autobiographical tale of an affair between a married woman and a single man, capturing listeners’ fancy through stirring sonics and colorful lyricism.
Three Colored Wall arrives exactly one year after Little Idols‘ release, and finds Lehning completing a project he first began recording ten years ago; he describes it as a “piece of unfinished business I always knew I’d come back to.” Whereas Little Idols took liberties with fiction and storytelling, Three Colored Wall hits close to home as Lehning explores, confronts, accepts, and dwells in the depths of death.
“I’ve always been kind of obsessed with death,” Lehning says, “to the point where I can imagine myself at some ripe old age looking back and wondering why I spent so much of my time thinking about it. And in some ways, that’s what this record is. It’s me drumming up this ghost and the ghost telling me that it has nothing to offer, that I need to get back to living my own life.”
Lehning’s fourth record examines the artist’s own experiences with grief and loss, “but told from the perspective of many different characters.”
It’s as tranquilizing as it is unsettling – a moody, dramatic, and immersive work ready to whisk its listeners into a world of our dreams, where we can either relax and drift along to the music, or examine our own mortality.
As the album’s opener, “Static” serves as both a sonic and thematic gateway for all that’s to come. A gorgeous, almost whimsical landscape dazzles the ears as the song begins: It’s only once Lehning starts singing that the track’s more sobering subject matter comes into frame. The artist’s voice is part plaintive, part methodical as he weaves his audience through a range of scenarios: “Ever lost your way around the block? Ever found yourself at a loss? There’s a jet stream cutting up the sky, crossing x’s and marking spots…“
I wonder have you wondered baby
About the living and dead end lines
Nobody’s gonna hurt you now love
But the static will steal your mind
Yea the static will steal your mind
When you leave this old world behind
And the ringing in your ears
Is the sound of passing time
Death – or “the static” – is experienced here as a vessel of relief; of catharsis; of an ultimate sort of release from the tensions constantly building in our lives, and in our minds. For most, this is not a pleasant concept to think about, but Lehning isn’t going for ease; his art provokes us to experience discomfort, pushing us deep into this chasm where life and death coexist as concepts and not disparate finalities.
“This piece serves as an introduction to the sonic landscape of the album Three Colored Wall,” Lehning tells Atwood Magazine. “Static” is a promise of the stasis that awaits. A jet stream leaves an “x” in the sky marking our destination in the hereafter. This was the first to be written and recorded in the collection. It has to do also with the pain of life and the fear of accepting death. “Nobody’s gonna hurt you now, love. But the static will steal your mind.”
Is it a welcome state of being, or an omen? We listeners may place judgment and add our own emotions to “Static,” but Lehning’s performance leaves much up to interpretation. He’s not telling us how to think or feel; he’s just asking the questions that get the conversation started.
Yea the static will steal your mind
When you leave this old world behind
And the ringing in your ears
Is the sound of passing time
A stirring meditation, “Static” proves a powerful entrance to a record full of its own personal reckoning.
Three Colored Wall promises to offer some of Jordan Lehning’s most arresting, intimate, and thought-provoking music of his still-nascent career – and through “Static,” he’s found a way to entrance his audience, while subtly hinting at all that’s to come. Stream “Static” exclusively on Atwood Magazine, and stay tuned for more as Lehning builds toward Three Colored Wall‘s August release!
— —
Stream: “Static” – Jordan Lehning
— — — —
Connect to Jordan Lehning on
Facebook, Twitter, Instagram
Discover new music on Atwood Magazine
? © Zac Farro
:: Stream Jordan Lehning ::
