Jaws of Love is a project that has undoubtedly turned quite a few heads since its beginnings. Now on his second album (in this project at least), Kelcey Ayer continues to push boundaries and bring a special type of energy to the music he creates. ‘Second Life’ is the title of the ten track LP and it certainly has breathed new life into the project.
Kelcey has not only managed to delve a little deeper inwards on this album, but also share more about his personal experiences, like the one which he wrote the focus track (‘The Heist‘) about. In this song, he faces own demons by acknowledging and accepting the loss of a child to miscarriage, as much as he can do. There is a huge respect gained for the singer when you hear the lyrics come out, but you cannot help but feel for him and his partner during that time.
Kelcey explains:
“The Heist was written at an exact moment in time. I was sitting on the couch watching my wife eating saltine crackers to stave off morning sickness when I realised we were just about to hit a milestone in our journey towards parenthood: the next day we would be one day further in our current pregnancy than our previous one. Our first ended in a miscarriage after 7 weeks and one day, and this one was about to hit 7 weeks and two days. In that moment, I imagined taking this next step would lead to another, and then another, and another, and I painted the life we might have if this child was born and actually was able to grow up. Sadly this pregnancy also ended. It was deemed an anomaly having ended at 17 weeks, something that happens to roughly 1-3% of all pregnancies. We’re still recovering from this loss, but at least we had this one moment documented where, albeit faintly, hope seemed brighter than despair.”
The rest of the album stands up against the closing track ‘The Heist‘ and against previous single ‘Rainbow Baby‘, meandering through tempos and styles but very much in fitting to what Ayer is becoming best known for – songwriting and intricate production. The particularly strong ‘100 years’ and ‘5 years‘ displays this in full with an amazing sounding compressed drum sound acting as a bedding throughout the album.
Make sure to check out the album below in full, it’s a delight.
