My Dark Side

With his band Sheer Agony's 2016 debut album, Masterpiece, Jackson MacIntosh helped create one of the finest power-pop-meets-new-wave-meets-heartbreak-ballads records since the '70s heyday of the sound. While working on another Sheer Agony record in his Drones Clubs studio -- where he recorded bands like Homeshake and TOPS -- MacIntosh ended up writing a batch of songs that weren't quite right for the band. He decided to turn them into an album, and 2018's My Dark Side is the result. Digging into subdued '70s ballads like one might hear on a Todd Rundgren or Harry Nilsson record, dishing out heartbroken lyrics that were the result of two breakups in the span of three years, and keeping things sparse and simple, MacIntosh reveals himself as a very credible singer/songwriter in the classic sense. The record begins with a suite of slow, sad songs that showcase his aching, melancholy vocals and create a late-night, crying-in-a-drink mood that's hard to shake. Built around clunky drum machines, electric pianos, occasional guitars, and a thick coat of reverb, the songs come off like bedroom Memphis soul at times, only MacIntosh seems far too bummed to break a soulful sweat. The opening "Can It Be Love" sets the stage perfectly, then "I Wish I Could Feel Like I Used To" drives the melancholy nail in further with some seriously downtrodden lyrics and steely guitar licks. It all hits rock bottom emotionally with the title track, which adds some rugged guitar and sweeping synths to the mix as the tempo drags the bottom of the river and MacIntosh is too out of it to even sing. Amazingly, after this seeming musical suicide note, the album perks back up a little with the lyrically bleak but musically pulsing "Peter Pan." A little bit of sunlight enters through a crack in the curtains after that as the next track, "Pretty Clear,' features an actual tempo that goes past slow, a bouncing bassline, and a snappy vocal, then a couple of almost cheerful songs follow. "Can't Stop Holding On" isn't happy by any means -- the gloom inside MacIntosh is too strong for that -- but the song is a jangling pop/rocker that feels like a smudged take on a song from the Fast Times at Ridgemont High soundtrack. After that burst of energy, the album ends with a very pretty, almost a cappella ballad that gives the listener one last chance to admire his pleasingly restrained singing style and his sure-handed way of delivering melancholy in an easy-to-swallow pill. The album may not have the punch and pizzazz of his work with Sheer Agony, but it has a depth that band only hints at, and if My Dark Side had come out in 1972 or so, people would be talking about it the way they talk about Todd or Harry's best work. ~ Tim Sendra