Download: Jesse Woods – “Danger in the Dancehall”
With “Danger in the Dancehall,” the first song to drop from his forthcoming debut full-length Get Your Burdens Lifted, singer-songwriter Jesse Woods conjures a delicate pillow in which to rest a newly-sharpened dagger. Instrumentally, the track offers a divine cornucopia, replete with bright and fingerpicked guitar, spacious piano, banjo, pizzicato violin, and cello. Tastefully composed, the simpler instrumentation of the verses and the grander arrangements of the choruses coexist in harmony, neither one overshadowing the other, both instilling an autumnal, pastoral feeling of contentment in the listener. It’s at this point, however, when I bring up Woods’ carefully chosen lyrics that pierce the heart with their poetry and grace. Woods’ words paint scenes of ephemeral youth, where the future is full of potential but also confusing, unknown, and fearsome. His voice, enhanced by just a spot of reverb, delivers his lyrics in a way that is nonchalant, both confessional and confident.

You can grab the track at the link above through Rolling Stone.