Colorado singer/songwriter Jason Vigil devotes his debut album Heart Gone Sober to ten songs that treat romantic relationships (or, perhaps, a single romantic relationship) intimately and with considerable anguish. Every song features a first-person narrator addressing himself to a second-person subject; this "I/you" structure is varied only occasionally, with a few "she" pronouns thrown in here and there. And things are not going well between the singer and his nominal paramour. In the lead-off track, "You I'm Thinking," he professes his love and gushes, "I'll tell you everything," but from there the romance goes off the rails, and Vigil spends the rest of the album alternately bemoaning his unhappiness and trying to get his girlfriend back. In "Hurts to Be Without," he pleads, "Skip the breakup, cut to makeup." Alas, it appears to be the makeup that's being skipped, although, by album's end he hasn't given up hope, closing with a song called, "Come to Me." Vigil expresses his feelings in an earnest, husky voice over tight folk-rock arrangements that showcase some strong guitar playing. His songs are melodic, with good choruses. He sounds like he spent his adolescence listening to Matchbox 20 and Counting Crows, mainstream rock bands with dominant lead singers whose voices are full of yearning. Vigil is yearning, too, in songs that come off like highly personal love letters sent to a woman who may not be all that interested in reading them.
© William Ruhlmann /TiVo