Country’s most straightforward strains have been getting some long overdue respect from underground players lately, and for evidence of this, I point you towards none other than “Over For Good,” the new single and music video from one Jim Jacobs. Jim Jacobs has a country sound that is bred from his honest and highly likable persona, and while he’s not entirely obsessed with the familiar tent poles of contemporary country/pop, rebelling against the mainstream appears to be of great value to his brand at the moment. Right out of the gate in “Over For Good,” this singer/songwriter establishes that he’s dedicated to melodicism and has a penchant for pulsating country rhythms recently absent from the airwaves altogether.
Though the music video for this track has a rough exterior, it puts the substance of the melodies ahead of visual pomp for what feels like an immersive experience from top to bottom. “Over For Good” touches on revivalist themes in its narrative and doesn’t shy away from getting a little retro when it needs to, but by balancing out the brighter elements with something a bit more harmony-centric in the sonic scheme of things, this singer/songwriter never devolves into predictable, pseudo-outlaw territory for even a second.
I like the subtlety of the guitar parts at a few moments in the master mix here, and though it’s strikingly different from what I was initially expecting to find, it’s perhaps what kept me on the edge of my seat from start to finish when I first sat down with the song this past weekend. There isn’t anything impeding the tonal component of the six-string while the other elements in the mix remain as crisp and fragile as they are near the beginning of the song, and all without the aid of a synthetic addition to the music. That’s impressive, especially for a singer/songwriter track in the post-millennial era.
The vocal gets a lot more volume than it needs in this recording, but I can understand why. In more ways than one, our singer is holding together all of the edges in the instrumentation with his defined harmony, and even at its most puritan, “Over For Good” is never so countrified that it loses a certain pop appeal required to fit in on the radio in 2022. Every part of the arrangement is contributing to the finished product, and that’s why this song feels so heavy no matter what angle we analyze it from.
Jim Jacobs is a new face in the country genre for me, but his future is looking as bright as the morning sun in “Over For Good.” Lyrically spellbinding and sporting the sort of instrumental might that I haven’t been able to get ahold of in most of the new country music coming out this year, this single and its companion video are smoldering examples of what a talented artist can accomplish when everything is clicking into place inside of the studio, and if it’s just a sneak preview of what this singer/songwriter is going to be doing regularly, it won’t be the only hit he scores before all is said and done.
