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Esquire Magazine Exclusive: Listen to Jackson Browne’s Yeah Yeah
“It’s like going to the pound and rescuing a dog,” Jackson Browne says of his penchant for picking up cheap, unusual guitars on eBay. “You know, ‘Let me make something out of this.'”
Whether it’s his undying love for the guitar or his ability to wring a great song out of thin air, Browne seems as inspired as ever on Standing in the Breach, his new album due out October 7 on Inside Recordings, as well as on his current tour.
The album, which features essentially the same band that Browne has used in his recordings and tours since 1993’s I’m Alive, harks back to the legendary songwriter’s best work, and will be a welcome addition for any fan of his music, especially those who favor his classic, early-’70s recordings. It’s been exactly six years since Browne’s last studio album, Time the Conqueror, though the Rock and Roll Hall of Famer has released several live albums in the past decade.
“I’ve been more or less productive at different times in my life, but I had to become more industrious to get this album made,” Browne admits of his latest. “I put as much into the writing of the songs as I ever have with anything I’ve ever done, but when I started it wasn’t in the context of record-making. It was more in the context of living and trying to find an approach to certain topics that I figured were important to me and, I think, important to life.”
Remarkably, Standing in the Breach even holds its own against Browne’s landmark 1974 classic Late for the Sky, boasting the songwriter’s finely observed ruminations on love and the space between people. “Here” and “Yeah Yeah,” premiering exclusively here, are prime examples of the sort of writing that Browne is celebrated for.