Released: 2010 (re-released 2017)
Track list
No Time
Wake Up Becki
Hippies and Cowboys
65 Days in LA
Somewhere in the Middle
Been Around
Last Call for the Blues
Curse the Sky
Loveletters and Cigarettes
Less Wise
Songwriters: Cody Jinks, Scott Copeland ("Last Call for the Blues"), Nate Kipp ("Loveletters and Cigarettes")
TL;DR: Rough-edged in sound, raw and yet pure in its personal observations and at times deeply unsettling honesty, "Less Wise" was my true intro to the indie country/"underground" music scene.
For this new series, instead of reviewing and scoring an old album, I'll be highlighting how the artist's songwriting skills and vocal ability (technical skill, charisma, or both) helped change and shape my current worldview. Music is a powerful force: in and of itself it's neutral, but it can be used to express powerful emotions of all sorts. All emotions are also neutral by themselves, and to experience unpleasant ones, like anger, grief, sadness, bitterness, or guilt is a completely natural part of life. Today, I'll cover Cody Jinks's debut country release, "Less Wise", which I first listened to my senior year of high school (2018) and which had me hooked from the opening line.
"Burning the candle at both ends leaves no time to think/to kill one flame/slow the burn."
-"No Time"
While this was two years before I began storm chasing, this line grabbed me immediately in the difficult transition period between high school and college. I had it absolutely set up perfectly to succeed: supportive parents and younger sibling and living with family in my school's city (I still do as I continue to grind through college to this day.) Grades have never been a true issue (humblebrag alert), but burnout and mental health challenges from not knowing how to prioritize always have been a problem for me.
"You must be fast asleep not thinking about me or you’re already gone/Wake up Becki/Becki I’m almost home."
-"Wake Up Becki"
After the hard-charging, bittersweet opener, this song is stunningly tender and real, a love letter to Jinks's wife Rebecca. His fear that his rambling/traveling lifestyle will wreck this relationship is a theme that shows up in much of his later work too, in increasingly devastating ways.
"I never had a lot of friends and I'm alright by that/but people keep on coming back/raising hell with the hippies and the cowboys/they don't care about no trends/they don't care about songs that sell."
-"Hippies and Cowboys"
This has always been considered by critics and fans to be one of Jinks's signature songs. It's a smoky, gruff, defiant ode to the grinding, fiercely independent musician. Evem as a level of underground popularity has started to reach Jinks, he's tried hard to stay in touch with this song style. It's still hard even now to remember a time he's ever truly "sold out", which is remarkable considering he started as a hard-charging heavy metal act before pivoting permanently to true barroom country-rock.
"We went out there searchin’ for something/Instead we all got lost/We were headin’ out west and the plans were goin’ south/Never counted no cost/By the time I hit Arizona I was on my way to see/65 days in L.A. is enough for me."
-"65 Days in L.A."
This one honestly speaks for itself, but we all have memories of that one place we couldn't wait to visit and it ended up being hugely overhyped to us anyway. (For me: Mount Rushmore without a doubt, but San Diego > LA in my mind.)
"No, I don't give a damn how much money you make/If your last shirt has pockets take all you can take/I'm going out with nothing like I came in."
-"Somewhere In The Middle"
Money may not be able to buy happiness by itself, but even a little bit of money in savings sure as heck makes for a bit more peace of mind. At the end of the day, the pursuit of money has destroyed too many people, including those who claim to be religious, those who never have been, as well as those who are "somewhere in the middle." This is considered another Jinks classic by most.
"I don’t run from guilt you see/my conscience lets me know at least a thousand times or better every day/Things I’ve done mistakes I’ve made/raised feelings I’ll lay in some grave if ever I am finally laid to rest/If there’s time to pray before I die/I pray dear Lord you know that I was a righteous man that somehow lost his way/Face me down when I shall pass so the world can kiss my ass/ and Hell can’t come and get me from behind."
-"Been Around"
This one also speaks for itself, but as an extremely sarcastic and anxious overthinker who occasionally throws caution to the wind and completely regrets it, this one deeply resonates with me no matter how many times I hear it.
"You’re good for nothing/ It’s what they always say/ I can’t say no different/ look at me today/ Always in and out of trouble/ An enemy of the state/ Why can’t I get my act together/ Dollar short, a day late."
-"Last Call for the Blues"
No comment other than this is depression with anxiety included in a nutshell.
"Sometimes in the summer, it’ll lightnin’, it’ll thunder/ But the rain don’t seem to come it rolls on by/ Thunder sounds like laughter, as the lightning hits the pasture/ And you know that land has been dry for some time/
And it burns and it burns, oh it burns"
-"Curse the Sky"
As a person who's been endlessly fascinated by extreme weather of all kinds, especially severe thunderstorms and tornadoes, since I was younger, this one hits REALLY hard. How can something as fickle and destructive as the weather also produce the incredible raw beauty everyone sometimes sees in thunderstorms? Fires/drought and flooding, the two themes of this song, are two of the scariest, cruelest, most random natural disasters. Between the historically awful 2012 wildfire season and the horrific spring and summer flooding in my state in 2019, it's a sobering reminder for me to never, EVER get too excited while storm chasing. Instead, I strive to keep an even keel and make accurate reports on exactly what I'm seeing, nothing more, nothing less.
"This old town’s is the way you left it/ And sleep is good when you can get it."
-"Loveletters and Cigarettes"
This is my least favorite song on the album, but the bitter sadness, anger, and regret of this track is relatable to anyone, whether it's in their past, their present, or their unknown future.
"Time is gold and it only goes by in waves of strangers/ Along the way sometimes strangers make your friends."
-"Less Wise"
This bare-bones acoustic ballad and the album closer is a poetic and deeply personal masterpiece. Its details are so specific that you know Jinks is basing them on real people he's known and the very few he still does know, and yet almost all of us have known at least a person or two like these characters. What a beautiful, haunting title track.
Jinks has far more famous and far more critically-acclaimed albums. This one will always be special to me because it helped tipped the balance toward me supporting lesser-known and independent artists while still enjoying some mainstream artists and sounds.