Every so often, you listen to an album the whole way through and are left breathless. The artist has laid it all out, baring their soul, giving you a new perspective on your own life. Surely, this is their height. If you’re reading this, you know this is the high we all search for whenever we crack open a new CD, drop the needle on an LP, or hit “play.” For Jason Hawk Harris, Thin Places is surely the album of his life.
I mean, I thought that about his 2019 album Love & The Dark. I was wrong. Thin Places brings all of Harris’ craft to bear. Both classical trained and an experienced purveyor of country and Americana, Thin Places is nothing if not emotive and elegant, allowing the negative spaces in Harris’ compositions to create a sense of ambiguity and awe — not the kind you feel when reveling in natural beauty, but the awe of mysterious forces that govern our lives, particularly death.
Harris sets the stage with the breathtaking “Jordan and the Nile,” an intricate piece that sets the stage for the album. Drawing on contemporary classical music, gospel, and a gob-stopping pedal steel line, the song explores Harris’ themes of grief, depression, loss — and resilience.
Things don’t get much lighter from here but they certainly get fun. “Shine a Light” is a character study of a man who’s hit rock bottom, unable even to indulge in vices properly. We can’t help rooting for him, though — maybe we’ve never gone that far, but whom amongst us hasn’t flashed a resigned smile and thrown themselves into the maelstrom?
Meanwhile, “The Abyss” paints a glorious portrait of Harris’ learning to let go of his mother, and a wish for her redemption in spite of her flaws. It’s a heartbreaking realization of trauma and its intergenerational reverberations, as much as it is about forgiveness. Harris and his mother seek to comfort each other on either side of the thin places.
Harris finds that comfort in other sources, too. “So Damn Good” is an enchanting love song, meaningful and mature. Even in the maelstrom, there is time for pleasure and gratitude, and Harris shows us the way. Thin Places is without doubt one of the best albums this year and will only reward the listener on repeated examinations.