ALBUM: Jackson Emmer - PEN-PAL

There is a familiar youthful longing throughout Pen-Pal, the new album from Jackson Emmer that we were lucky enough to receive straight from the handsome devil himself. Childhood memories like "If you weren't seven years old, you would have shown me yours and I would have shown you mine," make frequent appearances. Emmer describes his latest musical endeavor as a group of songs that "are all based on human correspondence. They are inspired by distance, separation, communication and reunion." As a whole, the album can be characterized by a lone banjo and sprawling vocals, peppered with some super raunchy lyrical bits that verge on eroticism. ("The space between our sentences becomes erect, and starts to poke us at both ends, beginning and behind, stiff as the silence.) It's those delightful, almost inappropriate surprises that make Emmer's music more than just nostalgic pining for childhood.

Download/stream it here and also be sure to check out the Open Face Record Collective and all their awesome artists, such as the delectable divas of Mountain Man.

Here's "Was It Winnie" for your streaming pleasure.

"Come watch me bleed, I need you more than ever."

By the by... if you dig Jackson Emmer, then we've got a hunch you'll also really dig Horse's Mouth.