Isaiah True Weaver - "Jim Jars Marti"
The second album this year from ITW
Jim Jars Marti is the second album of 2023 for Indie Folk artist Isaiah True Weaver. The first, Good Men Die Like Dogs, was an incredibly raw and underproduced yet wonderfully melodic experience. And it’s currently sitting in the Teal bucket.1
Before these two, ITW (as he brands himself on this album cover) had one album in 2021: Flat Tire Down Memory Lane.
Before I get into the album, proper, I would like to point out that, without exception, I am immediately concerned when an artist puts out albums in back-to-back years.2 Every now and then, the quality manages to float on the trailing album,3 but typically an album without adequate cooking time is less enjoyable. There’s less time for editing and iteration — not to mention, less time for the artist to recognize where work truly needs to be done.4
This really feels like the main issue with Jim Jars Marti — it’s unsure of what it is, and the difference in quality across the album is stark. Further, there are differences in quality at multiple levels. Good Men Die Like Dogs, for example, was, conceptually and musically, damn near unblemished, and its only real shortcoming (if you can even call it that) was the ultra-raw production value. Jim Jars Marti, however, features songs which vary on both the production level as well as the conception/execution levels.
The album launches with “Judas”, which, on every level, competes with everything on Good Men Die Like Dogs. No matter what my complaints about a handful of tracks on the rest of Jim Jars Marti, the album was worth a listen solely for its opening track. It’s still raw, but there’s a smoothness to the edges which wasn’t present for most of the previous album. And the instrumentation is deep, layered, and well-conceived. Weaver follows “Judas” by pivoting to a more barebones approach on “I Met a Witch Today”. This second track is very pared down, but still an excellent listen.
It isn’t until the third track, “Mr. Weber”, that the album starts to show any weaknesses. The mixing subdues the whole affair — the ‘whole affair’ being just a vocal line accompanied by acoustic guitar. It feels like a throwback to classic singer-songwriter folk guy with a guitar, stylistically meshing with the 60s or 70s; but it also feels incomplete. Like an abandoned demo that got tagged on. “Just Like Taylor” follows the same vibes.
Of the album’s 12 tracks, four of them were misses, the other two being “Substrate Blues”, a strange stab at Blues which sounds more like Punk; and “A Dream About Paris”, which is a light song told by a speaker who makes frequent spoken asides, but the structure is incredibly repetitive.
The rest of the album met my expectations — and, at points, honestly exceeded them — with interesting melodies, layered acoustic guitar, and earnest emotionality.
“After All This Time” and “Memoria” are songs that every Folk lover should have on rotation. “Rise” is a bit repetitive, but interesting, and I love “Icy Puddles”, in spite of its brevity, as the album’s outro.
Weaver is still an artist I am happily keeping my eye on. If you’re a fan of Indie or Folk, then you should be watching him, as well.
Rating: Green
For anybody new to my bucket scoring system, the two temporary buckets (Teal and Lavender) procrastinating a final decision when an album is sitting right around one of the top two cutoffs — 8/10 to graduate from Green to Blue; 9.5/10 in order to be promoted from Blue to Purple.
The Mountain Goats give me anxiety.
For example, Evergrey’s A Heartless Portrait still pulled off a Purple in 2022, but it still wasn’t as good as 2021’s Escape of the Phoenix.
The catch here, of course, is that it is never clear exactly how much time goes into an album; an artist can go five years between albums, but that doesn’t mean that the album was being worked on for the full five years.
Jim Jars Marti album was actually a compilation from other albums , that Isaiah True Weaver already did, which are There is a Darkness , Weaver , Oxymoron , The Balloon Flies Away . He is prolific in his songwriting , and he has an old soul , writes like an old time folk singer , even though he is young . He is amazing !