Jared Putnam is a funny guy. No, really, he is. Don’t let the negative words above, which comprise five of the ten song titles on Lost Causes (oops, he did it again!), Putnam’s sixth album, The March Divide, fool you.
Being able to laugh at yourself is one of the tenants of comedy, and Putnam’s greatest strength has always been to take his everyman, self-effacing character and wrap it in urgent melodies backed by just-slick-enough production to draw you in and keep you there.
It’s why, over the years, music critics have called his songs “impressively hooky” (American Songwriter) with “classic pop hooks” (The Big Takeover) where his “pop sensibility comes entirely to the forefront” (Under The Radar).
As a next-door neighbor who you would actually like to know, Putnam doesn’t try to overstay his welcome, either. Even though he is a prolific songwriter, after the release of his appropriately titled fifth album cinc, in April of 2021, he figured he was tapped out of ideas for a while.
Instead, he started making the best distillation of his talents to date. As Putnam tells it, inspiration returned as he was just out doing Dad stuff.
“I was driving my kid to school and Gin Blossoms came on the radio. I’m a forever fan of Gin Blossoms, but this was 'Hey Jealousy,' which commercial radio has been running into the ground for 30 years.
“But in that moment, it was the greatest thing I’d ever heard! The hooks, the subject matter, and all the rest were as they’d always been, but I was struck by how it was put together. In that moment, that’s what made the song great.”
Putnam has spent years deconstructing pop songs in an attempt to discover the formula. This “Hey Jealousy” epiphany may have been destined because the blueprint of the connection Putnam realized while just doing Daddy duty allowed him to build Lost Causes.
“I’ve always been fascinated with dissecting what makes a song great and trying to find the catalyst for the chemical reaction that emotionally connects us to where a handful of tunes are run into the ground for 30 years,” he says of the rarefied air that a timeless hit song occupies.
Joining Putnam under The March Divide banner for Lost Causes are friends Ernie Garcia (long-time player with El Vez and Javier Escovedo) on bass and Jason West on drums.
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