Run Home Jack release EP

YOU TUBE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ul1y02OFY5E

Hailing from the Greensboro, North Carolina region, Run Home Jack began in 2017 as a side project of sorts for its key members Jersey Neese and Harold Godwin, but it’s quickly taken off as a viable vehicle for their songwriting talents to flower in a way they may have otherwise never experienced. It’s labeled as alternative indie rock and the last two words are accurate, but it’s worth disputing if the music is truly alternative. The lack of a guitar solo stands out, but their latest single “F.Y.H.T.” is a solid hard rock song obeying many laws of the form while still forging its own identity. It’s also the first single from their soon to drop second EP release, Part 2: I Tried, a release that seems ready to take the potential so apparent on their debut EP Part 1: Be Kind to a higher plane than they have known thus far.

The song features a guest musician. Wes Lauterbach from the band Lowborn joins the band on guitar for “F.Y.H.T.” but never draws attention to himself unduly and, instead, focuses his attention on playing with Run Home Jack as another member of the band. He strengthens an already memorable track thanks to his guitar work and the added intensity it brings to the table will definitely find favor with many listeners. The peak moments in the track are, undoubtedly, the chorus and bridge respectively, but the verses do an exemplary job of ramping up the audience’s expectations for those moments when they arrive.

Jersey Neese brings the heat as the band’s lead singer. His voice is enormously flexible, ranging from understated power during the verses and bridge into raging full on tonsil power during the song’s chorus. He obviously gives every ounce of himself to making the song work for listeners and the work pays off at every turn. He gets under the skin of the song’s lyrical content, obviously a believer in every word, and it results in “F.Y.H.T.” (find your happy thought) coming off as an intensely personal performance nevertheless designed to relate to a wide swath of potential listeners.

Clocking in at three minutes on the nose, Run Home Jack never burns the audience’s patience or attention up during the duration of the tune and, instead, sound resolutely committed to getting this song over as a prime example of what rock music is capable of in 2019. There are no slavish nods to cliché in this track; instead, it’s on fire with impassioned conviction from the first seconds onward. “F.Y.H.T.” will undoubtedly be one of the best moments on the band’s forthcoming new EP Part 2: I Tried and it’s difficult to imagine that this year will eventually come to a close with the song and EP alike not being considered as one of the best rock releases in recent memory. North Carolina is often known for producing memorable Americana styled acts, but Run Home Jack turns such expectations on their ear and instead blazes with genuine rock fire.

KKBOX: https://www.kkbox.com/sg/en/album/VAnRs7MVJ3GSH0F2tk-B009H-index.html

Mindy McCall