It’s amazing what a few lonely months shut inside your house while the world around you swirls with uncertainty can do to your mood. For Jordan Cailoa, of the Philly band Mo Lowda & the Humble, it clearly drove moments of deep introspectiveness.
The singer/guitarist used his time in quarantine to write and record his first solo folk album, 10 songs of often hushed vocals over strummed mostly acoustic guitars and light, steady drumming. While the sound is not a huge step away from Cailoa’s work with his current band, there are far more quieter moments on Only Real When Shared and a more introspective theme to the songs. There are also just enough melodic psychedelic moments in the music here to draw comparisons to fellow Philly native War On Drugs.
The album title is taken from a quote from Christopher McCandless, the tragic subject of Into The Wild. And it’s fitting when you consider the introspective nature of both the book and Cailoa’s record. And while McCandless’ solitude ends in a truly disturbing manner – both he and Cailoa are away from family and friends, in isolation and left to dwell on what really matters in life. Heavy? Hell yeah. But while the subject matter here is certainly weighty, Cailoa’s knack for sweet delivery gets the message across smoothly. The opening title track in particular is one of the best moments off the record.
At 10 tracks, the sparse sound of the record does have a tendency for some of the songs to almost bleed into each other, with little to distinguish one from the next, especially toward the end of the album. But overall, Only Real When Shared is an unvarnished, intimate, often beautiful look into someone channeling the loneliness of a forced isolation into a solid folk album.
Photo credit: Kirby Sybert
