This new collection of songs from Jacob Turnbloom is a comforting flash of San Diego spirit through and through, and it is as infectious as one would expect from a songwriter force behind one of our city’s most legendary surf goth rock groups, Mrs Magician. His songwriting is as catchy and piercing as it was when he fronted that band, but in the years since their last album, and even since his 2019 debut solo effort, “Cemetery Luau”, Jacob has sonically stretched his legs and giving his songs more room to breathe. On “Laughter in the Forever After”, he incorporates sweet textural components, like tasteful scraper blocks and lush synth pads, to create a sun-soaked landscape for these pop gems to thrive and frolic around in. This space in which the songs had to grow alleviates some of the sense of urgency that some of his other more punk-adjacent projects have, and that seems to have given every moment more layers, attention and care. The warmth of this album is undeniable and all over, in all the instrumentation’s deep reverberations and Jacob’s seemingly effortless vocal melodies, and there is so much to get submerged in throughout the entirety of it. There isn’t a better representation of the feeling of Southern California than this upcoming record.
