Growing up, I would spend hours in Fye listening to albums by artists I discovered through seeing their music video on MTV or VH1 (back when they actually aired music videos). When I found an artist I liked, I bought the CD and took it home to engage in my own little listening party. As soon as I reached my bedroom, I’d pop it into what I thought was an amazing sound system, snag the lyrics sheet out, and listen. Sometimes I would repeat this experience over and over again if I really loved the album. Eventually, when I reached college, I learned that people did a variation of this together and called them listening parties! Whether you have it by yourself or with a few friends, Taking Time by Reservations is one album more than worthy of a listening party.
The first aspect of Reservations’ debut full-length album that caught my ear was the vocals. Singer/songwriter Jana Horn has a voice that stands out with its simple beauty, similar to Priscilla Ahn. Her voice has the sweet tonal qualities of the Civil Wars’ Joy Williams, but also maintains the raw, unadorned feel akin to The xx’s Romy Madley Croft. The combination of these two aspects makes Jana’s voice one that is impossible to tire of. I truly can listen to her over and over again.
Each song on Taking Time pairs Jana’s beautiful voice with Jason Baczynski’s drums and Paul Price’s guitar in a unique way. The trio’s songs not only provide different layerings of these instruments but also contain different amounts of heaviness. Some songs like “Planet” and “I’ve been trying not to feel it” provide a fuller, louder sound, while others such as “I don’t mind” and “To be honest” give out more chill vibes. “I can hear us” is a really great example of Reservations’ ability to begin a song at the more relaxed levels of “To be honest” and build beautifully to a heavier rock sound by its end. They do that wonderful trick often on the album.
The first single off the album, “Planet,” opens the album up with Jana’s unadorned voice, accompanied by piano and the up-front drums enters in. The electric guitar adds a layer to the instrumentation that fills out the sound. The song has a slightly melancholic quality, almost giving off a post-apocalyptic feel. This feel is particularly evident in the repetition of, “welcome to the planet/ it’s not the way I planned it, it’s not,” sounding as if this could be a song for the soundtrack of a very well-done zombie movie. I say well-done because the song maintains a high level of artistic quality that could only be tied to something of similar high quality. “Planet” is a really great opening to an awesome album. I can only assume that you are now ready to host your own listening party centered around it.–Krisann Janowitz