American alternative rock outfit
Ours is the brainchild of New Jersey-bred singer/songwriter
Jimmy Gnecco, whose passionate delivery and wild howls joined the ranks of equally emotive vocalists
Jeff Buckley,
Bono, and
Matt Bellamy of
Muse. After debuting in the early 2000s with the major-label breakthrough
Distorted Lullabies, the group followed that album's success up the charts with sophomore set
Precious and the
Rick Rubin-produced
Mercy. Soon after, the project went underground and sporadically released efforts into the 2010s, including 2013's Ballet the Boxer and 2018's New Age Heroine. In 2021,
Gnecco returned with the expansive self-titled comeback,
Ours.
Born and raised in New Jersey,
Gnecco toyed with music and various band configurations after graduating high school, but it wasn't until 1996, when he returned to America after a brief sabbatical, that he decided to pour his complete energy into music. It didn't take him long to attract industry attention; a major-label bidding war quickly ensued, with
Gnecco turning down a few deals on the way to ultimately striking a partnership with DreamWorks. The relationship formed slowly --
Gnecco didn't enter the studio for another year -- and the task of recording that elusive debut proved to be daunting. With
Steve Lillywhite at the helm, it took
Gnecco over three years to complete. The resulting album, 2000's
Distorted Lullabies, was met with modest critical acclaim, with the prevailing sentiment suggesting that
Gnecco was quite similar to the late
Jeff Buckley. Two years later,
Ours returned with the lush and beautiful
Precious, which was the group's first to crack Billboard's albums chart. From there,
Gnecco remained elusive, despite a cult-like following of devoted fans.
Half a decade later, a move to American Recordings (and a production slot for head honcho
Rick Rubin) produced third full-length
Mercy...(Dancing for the Death of an Imaginary Enemy), which was released in 2008.
Gnecco quickly followed with the release of a solo acoustic venture, The Heart, in 2010. The next year, he issued the X Edition of the album, which featured re-recordings of the original tracks with a full band.
Gnecco returned his focus to
Ours three years later with the project's fourth full album, the crowdfunded Ballet the Boxer 1. New Age Heroine II, a sequel of sorts, arrived in 2018 after another extended absence. The Media Age EP followed in late 2020, intended as a bridge between Boxer and Heroine, kicking off a creative burst for
Gnecco that yielded multiple efforts. The third installment of a proposed trilogy was set to be titled Spectacular Sight, but it was later released as the self-titled
Ours. Issued on May 15, 2021 (the 20th anniversary of the release of
Distorted Lullabies), the album was an artistic revival for the band, spanning 17 tracks split into three chapters (The Towering Garden, Azurite, and Spectacular Sight). That same week,
Gnecco also issued a pair of EPs: Right Here Right Now and The Bella Fall. ~ Neil Z. Yeung & Mark Pytlik