Jared Mees Life Is Long

Jared Mees' fourth album, employs many of the Poet's traditional tools: metaphor and simile, alliteration and euphony, rhyme and aphorism, variation in voice and point of view. But these are only devices by which Jared the Poet treats his diverse subject matters: Loss of Faith, Love, Legacy, Suicide, to name a few contained in Life is Long. Jared wrote all the songs and, recorded them in a small cabin along Oregon's mighty Santiam river. While supplying the vocals and compositions, Jared had members of Typhoon, Radiation City, The Domestics, New Move and Yeah Great Fine play the music. For many days, they all went about the cabin in pajamas and bathrobes, eating sandwiches and ingesting cannabis. After many days of this they came to call themselves The Comfy Boyz. et cetera. et cetera. In the title track, “Life is Long,” Jared inverts an old cliche and invokes the wisdom of one of his favorite authors, David Foster Wallace. The third song, “I Believe,” is about an adult making sense of the world after a religious upbringing in a small Rocky Mountain town. The positive anthem “This Is Your Year” is, frankly, much needed after 2016. And the final track, “Eyes Be Wide,” can be interpreted as Jared giving his daughter life advice. It is part sage primer and part reflection on what may constitute a meaningful life.