Working under the nom de plume Burning Jacob’s Ladder, Gold Coast multi-instrumentalist and songwriter Jake T Johnson is about to release his new single ‘Fickle Bones’, and we are very honoured to give you an early listen.
With a crystalline edge and a haunting, atmospheric instrumentation, ‘Fickle Bones’ has the space and air of something epic and cinematic with a western twang and a gothic heartbeat. Johnson’s delivery is dark and almost ominous as he sings I want to slip inside your mind at night, I want to breathe the air that you cannot – which is actually a more benign message of guidance to a younger being.
Johnson says of the track’s themes:
It’s the emotional burden people carry on their shoulders from past experiences. It’s becoming numb to extremes, emotional detachment and living a life for someone else when they can’t.
Johnson’s vocals echo a Richard Ashcroft-like urgency while the instruments prowl underneath his vocals with a brooding intensity with backing vocals hovering in the distance like an observant choir of angels.
‘Fickle Bones’ is a dramatic and slow burning high impact track that would provide a fitting soundtrack to a David Lynch movie:
‘Fickle Bones’ is out tomorrow (Friday, 28 April 2023) and can be pre-saved here. Burning Jacob’s Ladder is amassing a very fine catalogue of brooding intense material starting with the release of his debut EP EP/1 in 2021 – check out his previous releases here.
