OTHER UNHAPPY PEOPLE (2022) • BLEACHERS
Other Unhappy People is Jack Antonoff at his best: mythologizing and shaping a world around his own songs. Antonoffs classic Americana mixed with 80s synth takes us from New Jersey into New York, where the albums protagonist tells the stories of the unhappy people on his journey. Heavily inspired by Billy Joel’s storytelling of city life and Springsteen’s Jersians pessimism, Other Unhappy People feels like people you’ve met before and pity. Not before long into the album the protagonist his life begins to seep in and at the end of ‘Smile For The Pictures’ you begin to wonder if the tales he tells are adept observations of sadness, or if the protagonist is projecting his own life and memories onto voiceless strangers.
