Throughout the course of this site’s ten year history, I’ve written a bit about the Ohio-born, Brooklyn-based singer/songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, electronic music producer and electronic music artist John Jagos. Known as the creative mastermind behind the acclaimed JOVM mainstay act Brothertiger, Jagos started the project while he was studying Ohio State University. Since then, Jagos has released a handful of EPs, including his critically applauded debut Vision Tunnels, Out of Touch, which featured “Out of Touch” and “Beyond The Infinite,” and last year’s A Chain of Islands EP. Jagos has also released three full-length albums: 2012’s Golden Years, 2013’s Future Splendor and 2015’s Out of Touch. And each of those efforts helped to establish his sound a sound that sounds as though it were influenced by Tears for Fears, St. Lucia, Washed Out and In Ghost Colours-era Cut Copy.
Slated for a September 11, 2020 release, Paradise Lost is Jagos’ first full-length album of original material in five years. “This record was, for me, the culmination of a lot of time and development,” the JOVM mainstay says in press notes. “Since my last album was released 5 years ago, I had been building on top of that sound, trying to make it even more dynamic and distinct. This record is also my most personal, and I think that shows not only in the subject matter, but in the choice of sounds as well. I find that in electronic music, you can capture an emotion honestly with synthesized sound, not just with lyrics.”
Sonically speaking, the album reportedly finds Jagos expanding upon the sound that has won him critical applause — with the album ranging from hook-driven indie pop to club-banging electronica centered around the Ohio-born, Brooklyn-based JOVM mainstay’s plaintive vocals singing lyrics that thematically touch upon aging gracefully, longing for purpose and celebrating life’s simple pleasures among others. Earlier this year, I wrote about the shimmering, Washed Out-like “Livin'” a track that thematically focuses on confronting the weirdness and uncertainty of life as you get older. Continuing a run of brooding and atmospheric material, Paradise Lost’s latest single “Shelter Cove” is centered around shimmering synths, Jagos’ plaintive and subtly effected falsetto and a soaring hook, the song manages to evoke the bracing chill of dipping into cooler than expected water for the first time.
“‘Shelter Cove’ was one of the last tracks I wrote for Paradise Lost,” the JOVM mainstay says in press notes. “I was sort of at a crossroads at that point in terms of how I wanted to wrap up the record. I found the pad sound on my Juno 60 after running it through a bunch of compression and saturation, and I knew I had to make a song around it. The song is about some specific times on tour, driving through northern California on the Pacific Highway, finding swimming holes with my friend and sound tech Will. We’d look up some spots on our days off and drive to them. Last time we did was in October. We went to Pfieffer Beach near Monterrey. It was really windy and it clearly wasn’t swimming season, so everyone at the beach was dumbfounded watching two pale idiots running into the ocean.”
