Jon Stancer

Thursday, June 4 at the Tranzac Main Hall in Toronto. Doors at 8. Link to tix in profile.

Jon Stancer and his band will perform at The Tranzac Main Hall in Toronto on Thursday, June 4th.
Tickets on sale now. https://www.showpass.com/jon-stancer-live-tranzac-main-hall/

jonstancer.com

In Light Of was released on Jan 21, 2022. At the time, writer Lorne Behrman’s breakdown of the 6-song mini album (EP) showed up in a few spots online and elsewhere. Or, at least, pieces of it did…

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ILO opens with the alluring “These Arms (Won’t Let You Go),” which features a dynamic instrumental makeup of lulling piano and ambient textures contrasted with rugged beats and richly emotive vocal harmonies. Stancer’s vocals are tender and nostalgic, pining for the loss of his children’s innocence years as they grow into independent young adults.

“One.Six” captures the hysteria of the Capitol insurrection with deft musical dynamics and compelling narrative verses. In the song, Stancer imaginatively conjures the thoughts and feelings from different eye-witness perspectives leading up to, during and in the aftermath of that fateful day. The second half of the track depicts the ominous and frantic mood from inside the building as the irate mob surges closer. The chilling refrain, ‘I think there’s someone outside’, not only projects the panic and the fear, but it’s also a cunning commentary on the people who comprised that mob and the notion that they have been marginalized or excluded.

The gorgeous piano ballad, “This Cannot Wait (Until Tomorrow),” mines the line between John Lennon’s delicate vulnerability and the soaring emotionality of prime Tears For Fears. The song snapshots a powerful pandemic epiphany. Stancer’s lyrics on this track are poetically impressionistic, and viscerally insightful: Pellets of rain / Drip down my face / I feel it again / Then nothing / The air has gone cold / And the cracks in my skin / I wander this place / As it lays to waste.

Another standout is “Scared Off.” This track conjures a floating-in- space loneliness. The lyrics here are emotionally essentialized, replete with such intriguing lines as: Heads will roll / Keep still / Wait ‘til the other shoe drops away / It will. “That song is meant to feel like a haze; like a fog that gets foggier before it finally begins to clear.”

“Are We Not Here For Fun? hits hard because it’s unflinchingly specific. The title track is about an infamous TikTok prankster (à la Mizzy) who finally has to pay for the lives he’s harmed for the sake of garnering online attention, while “Quasi Killer” relays the absurdity of being an overly sensitive “hitman for hire”. The impressionistic, dystopian world of the album continues on songs like “With A Little More Luck We Can Get Out Alive”, a snapshot of lovelorn cyber-soldiers in a war-torn future. These world-building songs are balanced with deeply intimate sketches. Songs like “Ricochet” and “2AM” describe, in vivid detail, the deterioration of relationships, with these larger societal issues looming around the corners…

Are We Not Here For Fun? stares directly into the darkness while refracting light: Shimmering soundscapes with playful articulations (like pitch shifted vocal snippets), soaring vocal melodies, huge waves of multi-tracked harmonies and gradual, minor-key arrangements that open slowly and deliberately as moonflower petals.”

Are We Not Here For Fun? - Out Now

Link in profile