Northern Michigander Jake Allen creates music that at once defies easy pigeonholing yet remains easily accessible. Though Allen fits the singer-songwriter template by virtue of his often confessional, if as often enigmatic, lyrics, the baroque nature of many of his arrangements on Affirmation's 12 songs make him more of a sonic auteur or architect than a standard heart-on-sleeve troubadour. Orchestral strings, woodwinds and other aural accoutrements build upon Allen's intricate guitar gymnastics and slowly ear-grabbing melodic hooks to build an aural heft as equally apt for an attentive listening experience and coffeehouse background ambience. Soft-loud-soft dynamics on a few numbers give the impression of grunge aesthetics transmuted to alternately swelling and delicate art pop. Certainly, Allen’s approach has some precedents in some 90s-00s male soloists with adult contemporary and adult album alternative radio appeal, but Affirmation Day bears the marks of an artist willing to cut through his own path.
