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Jesse Lortz

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In a Suit Made of Ash by Case Studies

ghostly beauty written and sung by

jesse lortz (case studies)

this album is what i needed.

#case studies #this is another life #jesse lortz

Jesse Lortz aka Case Studies

'This is Another Life' is in stores today

Photography by Angel Ceballos

#angel ceballos #jesse lortz #case studies #sacred bones #sub pop #the dutchess and the duke #the duke #folk #americana #alt-country #Alternative country #rock #indie #indie rock #american musician #american songwriter #seattle #marissa nadler #this is another life

"Everything" - Case Studies

It's unfortunate and unfair I've given such short shrift to anything country in the past, for this song is quite lovely - if not what I expected when pressing play on the Sacred Bones Soundcloud page. It's melancholy and moving, soulful and sentimental - depressing, really, just as the rest of This Is Another Life promises to be. Jesse Lortz seems born to be the heartbroken man who's seen to much, soundtracking every unbearably sad, rock-bottom event in one's life. His is the face that fades in and out of the film as he sings over-top the heroes' brooding.

The instrumentation, especially that sad, sad piano and the three minute mark guitar, is quite cutting; paired with Lortz' voice and surely soul-wrecking lyrics, "Everything" is devastating. The song takes me back to the first time I listened to Vic Chesnutt, Daniel Johnston, or Mark Linkous' vaguely similarly-styled dirges in the way-back-when of my ignorance to the genre's merits, though that's largely a personal comparison.

This Is Another Life is due out June 11th on Sacred Bones Records, his second full-length with the label that makes everything sound so desperately dark. Listen at your own discretion.

- Tyler Hanan

#Case Studies #Jesse Lortz #Everything #This Is Another Life #Sacred Bones Records

Case Studies: Lies

Yeah, this video pretty much captures my life.

Just replace all the ridiculously cute girls with spreadsheets and all of the outdoor time with sitting on my couch eating Chinese take-out, and it's me!

#case studies #jesse lortz

Review: Case Studies - The World Is Just a Shape to Fill the Night

By Luke Buckley

There is a comfortable darkness to be found in The World Is Just a Shape to Fill the Night. Under the moniker Case Studies, this is Jesse Lortz’s first solo effort since The Dutchess and the Duke parted ways last year. It's a sorrowful collection of memories and reflections. Delightfully dark at times and remarkably sweet in others, the power of his arrangements exists in the spaces left between remembrance and acceptance. The sparseness I describe is personified in the women Lortz sings for, and is best represented in the record’s unembellished musical arrangements.

His worn-down baritone at times buries the delivery of his words in inaudible sentiment. A mumble before the last verse of “My Silver Hand” does not change the impact of the events which lead to this: "I’d have no songs about remembrance/ I’d have no songs about forgiveness/ No songs of me and you."

On Sacred Bones' site, Lortz says that “making records has always been a lonely process and I was ready to change that dynamic.” He invited his friends to his grandfather’s Montana cabin to help collaborate. The semblance of emotional and creative support that was generated by their invitation comes through in the form of additional voices and instrument playing; adding a little life to an otherwise bleak recording.

On occasion, Lortz’s humdrum tone and wry sense of humor intersect. The silver-tongued sincerity in these songs is best exemplified in his retelling of the perfect summer romance, “You Folded Up My Blanket Like We Were Already Lovers”. "The summer sun was slowly painting pink upon your shoulders/ I stepped into a side street, bought a straw hat for five dollars/ Cut two holes with scissors that I borrowed from the shopkeeper/ And ran a ribbon through the loop and tied it around your chin."

The unabashed tenderness of moments like these are what you remember when the record is over. The overwhelming instances of disillusionment give way and what you’re left with is something that resembles worthiness. As the red hot days of summer begin showing signs of weakness and autumn breaks through its defenses, The World Is Just a Shape to Fill the Night will lend itself to becoming the perfect fall accessory.

Case Studies - You Folded Up My Blanket Like We Were Already Lovers

#case studies #jesse lortz #Sacred Bones Records #luke buckley #the world is just a shape to fill the night #review