Ours – Distorted Lullabies

Have you listened to Distorted Lullabies yet? You haven’t even heard of it?! For shame! The debut album from Ours, a little New Jersey band that’s just dying to be heard over the calamity of today’s new music, came out in 2001 and I can still remember where I was and what I was thinking when I first laid eyes on Jimmy Gnecco, the lead singer and man behind the whole operation. I was sitting in my pop’s old recliner eating a bowl of ice cream and watching MTV 2. Here comes this guy, black hair hanging in his face, a sad, angry, I’m-tired-of-the-bull look taking over his soft features. I turned the channel and thought, “Oh this is just another Pete Yorn wannabe.”

This happened several times until I finally gave it a chance about a week later. I remember sitting there glued to my seat, my heart absolutely pounding in my chest. I could hardly breathe! When Jimmy sings, it seems his heart is spilling onto the floor. He sings with such clarity, strength and agony, you can’t help but be mesmerized. The next week I bought the album.

Distorted Lullabies is exactly as the title states–distorted lullabies. Its music gives a mellow, sit and cry kind of feel, but the lyrics and guitar mold this album into something much more. It reeks of both melancholy and optimism, where you feel like you’re dying while you’re listening to it, but at the same time you know there’s reasons to hang on.

Ours sounds like agony–sounds like U2 meets Radiohead in a cold basement with a knife and a suicide pact. But deep within the heart of Distorted Lullabies resonates a thick string of hope that separates Ours from the rest of the emotional crybabies,like in the song Sometimes , the first single: “If I were to give in, the fire wouldsoon begin.”

Jimmy’s voice is so powerful, he doesn’t even need the band behind him, but the percussion and bass amplifies his vocal qualities until it’s somehow not even human anymore. I remember playing Sometimes to my mother and the first thing she said was, “Wow, that guy can really sing.” Jimmy Gnecco sings with such clarity and power he can be heard over oceans, even when he’s barely whispering. Throughout every song on the album you’re taken on an emotional roller coaster while Jimmy’s booming voice is whispering and screaming lonely, painful songs.

If you’re looking for a CD that picks you up and slams you to the floor–this is it, but you won’t be getting back up. Turn off the lights, burn some incense and let the voice of misery lull you to sleep. Singing from his heart and screaming from the very bottom of his stomach, Gnecco carries each song along with heart-wrenching crescendos to near-silent sadness, making the album strangely comforting, so much so you could almost fall asleep to it.