Like Freedy Johnston and Jeffrey Gaines before him,
Christopher Jak may have just a little too much on the
ball as a songwriter to ever really break it big, so
much so that, listening to Applause Of The Rain, you find yourself conflicted, wondering whether you should play the record for friends or keep Jak all to
yourself. Not that that's a bad problem to have.
With a voice that's at times reminiscent of Cat
Stevens', Jak creates believable characters and often
makes us believe the situations that they're caught up
in. But don't let the word caught fool you, the
characters here are never really in peril, something
that is the record's one weak spot--you come to
realize, after a while, that there's a lot of perfume
and smiles without the emotional counterpoint of
pungent sweat and seemingly endless tears. That said,
it's hard not to find yourself taken by songs such as
"Angel Like Me" (which wouldn't seem out of place on
either a James Taylor or Lyle Lovett disc) or "What
You're Thinking" (which some will try to catalogue as
being influenced by Jimmy Buffett, despite it being
better than anything Jimmy's ever done) and "This
Time," a Neil Finn-inflected pean to new love, which
may qualify as the most hard-hitting track here.
Applause Of The Rain is a good introduction to
Christopher Jak, though there's at least one listener
out there who's anxious to hear what happens when Jaks finally gets down on his knees and gets his hands
dirty in the real grit of life.
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