Jeremy Messersmith — Heart Murmurs (2014)

 Jeremy Messersmith — Heart Murmurs
◊≡   Minneapolis-based singer/songwriter with a unique and intelligent indie pop sound.
Location: South Carolina ~ Washington ~ Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S.
Album release: February 4, 2014
Record Label: Glassnote
Duration:     40:55
Tracks:
01 It's Only Dancing (Jeremy Messersmith)     4:40 
02 Tourniquet (Jeremy Messersmith)     4:17 
03 Bridges (Jeremy Messersmith)     4:13 
04 Steve (Jeremy Messersmith)     2:35 
05 Ghost (Jeremy Messersmith)     4:30 
06 Heidi (Jeremy Messersmith)     3:32 
07 I Want to Be Your One Night Stand (Jeremy Messersmith)     2:14 
08 You'll Only Break His Heart (Jeremy Messersmith)     4:39 
09 Bubblin' (Dan Lawonn/Jeremy Messersmith/Andy Thompson/Brian Tighe)     4:08 
10 Hitman (Jeremy Messersmith)     4:11 
11 Someday, Someone (Jeremy Messersmith)     1:56
℗ 2014 Glassnote Entertainment Group LLC
Album Moods: Intimate Introspective Lyrical Serious Calm/Peaceful Dark Earnest Earthy Elegant Lonely Melancholy Pastoral Wistful Yearning Autumnal Enigmatic Gentle Graceful Organic Poignant Sad Tender Tuneful Warm Wintry Agreeable Dreamy Soft/Quiet
Personnel:
• Jeremy Messersmith — Bass, Vocals, Casio
• Andy Thompson — Drums, Keys, Monome, Guitar, Melodica, Omnichord, Glock, Casio, Vocals
• Dan Lawonn — Cello, Vocals,
• Brian Tighe — Guitar, Vocals
CREDITS:
≡ Ben Allen  Bass, Guitar, Keyboards, Percussion
≡ Ben. H. Allen III  Mixing, Producer
≡ Vlad Bar  A&R
≡ Graham Barton  Engineer
≡ Colleen Bertsch  Viola
≡ Erica Burton  Viola
≡ Michael Cina  Artwork, Design, Photography
≡ Dan Lawonn  Arranger, Bass, Cello, Composer, Vocals
≡ Matthew Desmond  Photography
≡ Daniel Glass  A&R
≡ Brandon Haas  A&R
≡ Sumner Jones  Engineer, Mixing Assistant
≡ Allison LaBonne  Vocals
≡ The Laurels String Quartet  Strings
≡ Vlado Meller  Mastering
≡ Jeremy Messersmith  Arranger, Composer, Guitar, Piano, Primary Artist, Vocals
≡ Josh Misner  Violin
≡ Sarah Perbix  French Horn, Vocals
≡ Jesse Peterson  Violin
≡ Zach Pyles  Assistant Engineer
≡ Peter Remiger  String Engineer
≡ Zachary Scanlan  Violin
≡ Chris Scully  A&R
≡ Andy Thompson  Arranger, Composer, Drums, Engineer, Guitar, Keyboards, Mixing, Producer, String Arrangements, Vocals
≡ Megan Thompson  Flute, Oboe
≡ Brian Tighe  Arranger, Composer, Guitar, Vocals
≡ Ian Vinson  Assistant Engineer
≡ Janey Winterbauer  Vocals
≡ Bill Zimmerman  Assistant Engineer                                      ◊≡ Jeremy Messersmith at The Cabin
Review by Timothy Monger;  Score: ****
◊≡   Following 2010's The Reluctant Graveyard (written from the perspective of the dead) and 2012's ambient, largely instrumental Paper Moon, Heart Murmurs is Minneapolis singer-songwriter Jeremy Messersmith‘s foray back into the living world of big pop songwriting. The aptly titled LP shivers with the irregularities of its namesake, just as it beats with a steady, gushing pulse. Messersmith has long been a proponent of wistful and melancholic songs, but on Heart Murmurs he takes on the many romantic aspects of the heart, sung from perspectives of yearning, apathy, and regret, to name a few. Making his debut for Glassnote Records, he steps out from the D.I.Y. indie aesthetic of his earlier work to deliver an 11-track clinic on studiocraft that walks a fine line between big-budget pomp and careful elegance. Working again with Minneapolis producer Andy Thompson, the arrangements are streamlined and punchy, but with tightly woven strings, pianos, and other neatly sprung tricks. Beginning with the opening tale of unrequited love, “It’s Only Dancing,” you’re drawn into Messersmith’s unapologetically human tales that he delivers in his warm, high tenor voice. Both in presentation and songwriting, Messersmith comes across as ultimately relatable in the same way that mentor and former producer Dan Wilson (Trip Shakespeare, Semisonic) does, but like Wilson, he strives for a higher artistic standard to transcend the often pedestrian adult contemporary genre where music like this tends to be placed. While some of the freewheeling creativity of his earlier records has been subdued, the grand scheme of Heart Murmurs is one of subtlety and artistic maturity. ◊≡   Songs like “Bridges,” “Bubblin’,” and “Hitman” are wonderfully realized power pop ballads, and even if the single “Ghost” falls a bit too closely into the rousing strum ‘n’ kick Mumford/Lumineers mold, it is such a better-written piece of music than those bands’ vacant hobo epics that it’s not hard to get behind it. Taken as a whole, Heart Murmurs is a well-rounded and full-hearted record by an elite songwriter deserving of greater exposure.
Artist Biography by Timothy Monger
◊≡    Born in South Carolina and raised in Washington, Messersmith relocated to Minneapolis to attend college, after which he began recording his quiet, often melancholic songs in his basement studio. His first album, 2006's self-released The Alcatraz Kid, began a sort of pop trilogy of albums that he would develop over the following four years. The album was well received regionally and drew the attention of Twin Cities local hero Dan Wilson (Trip Shakespeare, Semisonic), who ended up producing Messersmith's follow-up, 2008's The Silver City. The third and final record of his trilogy, The Reluctant Graveyard, was released in 2010 and his reputation for elegant, literate songcraft began to build nationally when NPR named it one of the Top Ten albums of 2010 and it received features in Paste magazine and The New York Times, among others. He followed up the success with another single in 2010, but then made a dramatic left turn in 2012 with the release of a six-song record of ambient, highly textured instrumental songs called Paper Moon. That same year he continued to chase his quirky D.I.Y. tendencies by doing a tour of potluck-dinner house concerts. In 2013, he signed a deal with New York-based label Glassnote Records and released his fifth album, Heart Murmurs, in early 2014.
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REVIEW
by STEPHEN THOMPSON; January 26, 201411:00 PM
◊≡   Minneapolis singer-songwriter Jeremy Messersmith sings sweet, timeless songs about love, desire, death and grief — not, it would seem, the stuff of grandiose artistic ambition. And yet Messersmith stands out by trying harder, doing more and always reaching farther than it seems. This is a guy who, whenever possible, tours with an eight-piece band that includes a string section, and who once released a tremendous album (2010's The Reluctant Graveyard) in which the songs were written from the perspective of the dead. His work brings to mind some of the kindest voices in modern pop — David Mead, Death Cab for Cutie's Ben Gibbard, Fountains of Wayne's Chris Collingwood — but it also finds room for surprising twists and strange turns.
As its title suggests, Heart Murmurs mostly traverses the terrain of love, but Messersmith scrutinizes it from as many angles as possible: The album traffics in thwarted desire ("It's Only Dancing"), stubborn devotion ("Tourniquet") and bad-boy self-flagellation ("Bridges") before 15 minutes have passed. Along the way, Messersmith tries on any number of perspectives — never more effectively than in the deceptively titled "I Want to Be Your One Night Stand." In a ballad worthy of Fountains of Wayne, another act with a gift for giving voice to stubborn strivers just trying to get by, Messersmith crafts a perfect two-minute ode to modest expectations.
◊≡   But for the singer himself, that's where the modest expectations end: With its subtle strings and sly infectiousness, Heart Murmurs is no less than an attempt to craft a new batch of pop standards. Whether Messersmith succeeds depends mostly on how many people are lucky enough to hear him. (http://www.npr.org/)
Website: http://jeremymessersmith.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/jmessersmith
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/jeremymessersmith
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jeremymessersmithmusic
Press: Alex Dunne (US) | Christine Mackay (CA)
Agent: Marty Diamond (US/Japan/Aus) | Alex Bruford (UK/EU)
Gen. director: Paul Gillis, Ripple Entertainment, LLC —  © Photo credit: Kyle Dean Reinford
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Jeremy Messersmith — Heart Murmurs (2014)

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