Jim Wolf Gets 'Strange, Weird, And Romantic'

posted in: Reviews & Playlists

Despite the balanced wording of its title, the first installment of Jim Wolf’s Strange, Weird, and Romantic series of EPs is heavy on the romantic, and lighter on the strange, and weird. Over the course of the EP’s three songs of catchy, soulful, acoustic rock, Wolf alternates between confidence and caution as he sings about the various women in his life. While his lyrics gesture towards the stereotype of the continually brokenhearted singer-songwriter who nevertheless gets the girl (think John Mayer), Wolf inhabits this role with a healthy dose of skepticism. He sings about chasing relentlessly after a woman in “Make You My Lady,” but tempers his romantic yearning with the self-aware reflection, “My ego won’t save me.” Small moments of self-consciousness such as these are what elevate Wolf above other male singer-songwriters who often have the tendency to take themselves far too seriously. Wolf understands the game he’s playing when he sings, “What can I say that’s never yet been said?” on the EP’s closing track, “Watch The Pieces.” Even when artists sincerely express themselves, they can easily fall into the trap of repeating the sentiments that have come before. So it is with Wolf’s romantic relationships, which also seem to repeat themselves endlessly in the same format.  When he claims, “I’ve made up my mind / I’m gonna get over you / To break free from this paradigm,” he seems to know that it’s not only art that imitates itself; it’s life as well.

The two successive three-song EPs in Jim Wolf’s Strange, Weird, and Romantic series will drop in the next few months. The EPs will eventually be released as a single full-length in 2013.

Pick up Strange, Weird, and Romantic (Part 1) on iTunes now!