{"id":45940,"date":"2020-08-03T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-08-03T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/xoxo\/"},"modified":"2026-07-25T07:31:30","modified_gmt":"2026-07-25T07:31:30","slug":"xoxo","status":"publish","type":"review","link":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/xoxo\/","title":{"rendered":"XOXO"},"content":{"rendered":"

For the bulk of the Jayhawks\u2019 35-year career, Gary Louris has been the group\u2019s leading creative force. During the band\u2019s first decade (and again during a brief reunion), he shared the frontman role with co-founder and fellow vocalist\/guitarist Mark Olson, but for most of the last 25 years Louris has been the band\u2019s principal songwriter and lead vocalist. <\/p>\n

That reality has meant that Louris\u2019 distinct vision, a heady stew of harmony-heavy country-rock and British Invasion-inspired pop-rock, has also served as the Jayhawks\u2019 musical identity for most of that span of time. All of which makes XOXO<\/i> a fascinating experiment: the first time the band\u2014Louris (guitars\/vocals), Marc Perlman (bass\/vocals), Karen Grotberg (keyboards\/vocals) and Tim O\u2019Reagan (drums\/vocals)\u2014has opened up its creative process and worked up one another\u2019s songs as a true collective. <\/p>\n

You might expect some degree of chaos and confusion to result, but if anything, XOXO<\/i> serves to confirm that the band\u2019s sonic architecture has always rested on a firm foundation of shared musical sensibilities. Now the core of the band for the better part of a quarter century, this foursome\u2019s craft is so consistent and congruent that even with four writers and lead singers in play, every track here is instantly recognizable as a Jayhawks song.<\/p>\n

Kickoff cut \u201cThis Forgotten Town\u201d feels like classic Jayhawks, a richly melodic country-inflected acoustic number with strong piano undertones, credited to Perlman, Louris and O\u2019Reagan. Louris\u2019s voice eases you in and then hands off to O\u2019Reagan for a second verse, before Grotberg joins at the chorus in three-part harmonies that launch the song into the sky. Louris\u2019 brief, urgent electric solo serves as the cherry on top of this album\u2019s overture-slash-topic sentence.<\/p>\n

Next up, O\u2019Reagan\u2019s driving \u201cDogtown Days\u201d takes a garage rock \/ power-pop turn that\u2019s more Big Star than Gram Parsons, but still very much in character for the band that made that lost crossover masterpiece Smile<\/i><\/a>. O\u2019Reagan\u2019s voice has a keening quality and lived-in grit that reminds of Dylan in tone if not phrasing. Much like The Chicks\u2019 \u201cMarch March,\u201d Louris\u2019 lilting shuffle \u201cLiving In A Bubble\u201d couldn\u2019t be more timely despite having been written and recorded many months ago, a gentle screed against cable news sensationalism that works equally well as a quarantine theme song.<\/p>\n

Grotberg take the lead vocal role for her wistful ballad \u201cRuby,\u201d her distinctive tone and graceful touch at the piano complemented beautifully by harmonies and subtle instrumental accents from the other three. It\u2019s a track dominated by Grotberg that nonetheless feels of a piece with past Jayhawks ballads in its slumbery beauty. The pace then picks up again with Louris\u2019 \u201cHomecoming,\u201d sweetly psychedelic verses punctuated by assertive electric guitar chords, leading into a satisfying chorus.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Reagan\u2019s \u201cSociety Pages\u201d might be the biggest stylistic stretch here, a strummy acoustic pop number that mocks social pretension in edgy fashion, highlighted by one great line: \u201cYou can never trust a man \/ Who can\u2019t finish his beer\u201d (noted). Next up, \u201cIlluminate\u201d is another Perlman\/Louris\/O\u2019Reagan co-write, its rather sleepy, sing-songy opening verses accelerating into a classic-rock-inflected call-and-answer chorus, the vocal arrangement gradually achieving enough complexity and lift to make both Brian Wilson and Paul McCartney smile.<\/p>\n

Harmony-rich story song \u201cBitter Pill\u201d returns to that supple-rocking classic Jayhawks template, a Louris\/O\u2019Reagan\/Grotberg co-write featuring former Jayhawk Stephen McCarthy on Harrison-esque slide guitar and Louris at the mic. Grotberg takes another turn at the mic with \u201cAcross My Field,\u201d her rolling piano out front as the band\u2019s trademark harmonies light up the chorus, with former member John Jackson contributing violin.<\/p>\n

Late-album highlight \u201cLittle Victories\u201d is a dynamic Louris\/O\u2019Reagan cowrite with a Van Morrison white soul feel on the verses\u2014rolling beat, Hammond organ, unison vocals\u2014before ramping up for its big driving choruses. Perlman delivers a suitably dusty lead vocal on his solo write \u201cDown On The Farm,\u201d a haunting acoustic waltz about being an artist of a certain age: \u201cIt\u2019s too cold to be living so long \/ In a world ruled by the young.\u201d <\/p>\n

Warm yet melancholy album closer \u201cLooking Up Your Number\u201d finds O\u2019Reagan alone late in the evening, strumming his acoustic guitar and longing for a former lover, a bit of poignant solitude to finish things out. The CD version of XOXO<\/i> features a trio of bonus tracks: \u201cJewel Of The Trimbelle\u201d by Grotberg, \u201cThen You Walked Away\u201d by Louris, and \u201cHypocrite\u2019s Lament\u201d by Perlman\/Louris, each of them solid enough, but appropriately presented as extras rather than essentials.<\/p>\n

XOXO<\/i> breaks new ground for the iconic yet perpetually low-key Jayhawks by spreading the frontperson duties around without ever losing the distinctive musical thread that brought these four together in the first place. As a group, the Jayhawks have never sounded more confident, more melodic, and more in the collective groove than they do on this album, which might lack some of the high highs of their very best work, but leaves no doubt that it\u2019s another essential piece of their story.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":34109,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[5691],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-45940","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-the-jayhawks","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/45940","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45940"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/45940\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":51936,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/45940\/revisions\/51936"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34109"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45940"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45940"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=45940"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=45940"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}