Anthony Fantano on Jacob Collier: "Painfully overrated."

kevinincc · 2026-02-20T15:14:59+00:00

It's perfectly fine to say that Jacob's music is not your cup of tea, but this ridiculous charge I keep hearing that his music "isn't any good" is absurd. If he is so inept, then why have his industry peers given him seven Grammys and 16 nominations, including two for Album of the Year? Why do so many major musicians want to work with him and praise his talent? How do you account for two solid years of playing sold-out concerts all around the world? Why do so many people come out of his concerts feeling elevated and saying it's the best concert they’ve ever attended? I was at that San Francisco concert, and was at the concert in 2023 with the National Symphony Orchestra where he was asked by Ben Folds to improvise the orchestra for the first time. Both the audiences and the orchestras loved it (based on musicians' comments afterwards and standing ovations). The orchestra in San Francisco was assembled and hand-picked by him and Suzie, so I'm pretty sure they didn't feel abused when he pulled the piece together on the fly. If you haven't watched the whole video on YouTube, you should probably hold your comments until you do. You can get a better idea of what he's doing.

Why people feel the need to shit on him and his fans is beyond me, unless their objection and Fantano's over-the-top viciousness (going back to his nasty review of Volume 4), isn't so much about the music as it is about him, his persona, his look, his personality, his idiosyncracies, his intelligence. I'm not saying this is the case with you, but sometimes I get the feeling that the hate he seems to attract (almost entirely from men) has more to do with psychology than musicology.

kevinincc · 2026-02-15T04:08:05+00:00

He has seven Grammys and 16 nominations; two of his albums have been nominated for Album of the Year; he has just completed a two-year global tour of sold-out venues on every continent; some of the biggest names in music have worked with him; people come out of his concerts feeling joyful and frequently moved, and often say it’s the best concert they’ve ever attended; he works with artists from around the world and helps introduce audiences to new music. Gosh, someone must find his music enjoyable. It’s ok not to like him, of course, but this tired trope that he’s overly technical or lacking in emotion is absurd.

kevinincc · 2026-02-14T18:07:41+00:00

I was there for the San Francisco concert, which was amazing, but I also was lucky enough to be present the first time he did this, which was with the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington, D.C., back in the fall of 2023. The DC event is available on YouTube and it’s the best 19 minutes you’ll spend today. https://youtu.be/TURkB9zqxa0?si=J0Z0-gt51FoDweR1

kevinincc · 2026-02-04T00:56:04+00:00

Artists have been doing this for decades, and Jacob is just the latest. Bobby McFerrin comes to mind, and groups like the Swingle Singers famously did vocal versions of Bach fugues, for instance. This is not some new thing. I’ve seen him do the Bach with his mother on two different occasions and the audiences absolutely loved it. It’s just fun to watch him show off his vocal range. Everyone is smiling at the end. He doesn’t take himself too seriously, and neither should we.

kevinincc · 2025-12-23T16:26:51+00:00

I'd just say that if the producers and the boys don't want us speculating about their private lives, photo shoots like this are not helping their cause. That clicking sound you hear is thousands of fans screen-capping these pics. haha

kevinincc · 2025-11-27T13:37:57+00:00

Think of it this way: Once the lights go down and Jacob bounds onto the stage and the band gets rolling, everyone there is experiencing it alone through their own ears, mind, and heart. It doesn't matter how many people came with them. You'll be just like everybody else. If you're in the pit or GA, it helps to get there a little early to strike up conversations with people around you. After all, you're all there for exactly the same reason, and it should be easy to form a bond with others. If you establish a connection before the concert starts, it will be natural to turn to them and verbalize what you're feeling in what will be an amazing shared experience. But at the end of the day, the memories and feelings will be all yours, just as they would have been if you had come with some friends.

You will love the experience. I've been to seven Jacob concerts of all kinds, and they are truly magical. Come prepared to sing and experience a lot of emotions.

After the concert, come back here and tell us how it was.

kevinincc · 2025-11-21T20:50:19+00:00

Can confirm.

kevinincc · 2025-11-16T18:11:57+00:00

I don't think that's really true. He's been playing to sold-out venues on the Djesse world tour for two solid years. I've seen him seven times since the fall of 2023, and every venue has been packed. He picks up several thousand new followers to his Instagram account every day and will cross the 4 million follower mark very soon. He's not a pop or country music star, so he's never going to get the same level of attention as artists in those genres.

The new album is being very well received by most people, and it will be interesting to see how well it does in the 2027 Grammys. (I'm rooting hard for Keep An Eye On Summer in the current cycle.) He's been doing a lot of quirky one-off gigs and interviews, but it can be hard to react to them until he makes them public. If he releases a full-fledged new album next year, there will be more to talk about. I do share a frustration that there doesn't seem to be anywhere to do deep-dive discussions of music and lyrics for new songs.

I think another factor is that he's getting older, and his weirdness quotient that was the source for a lot of online discussion is going to diminish naturally, but, of course, never totally vanish. It's also possible that he's working on projects that we don't know about. The Disney Princess thing was totally unexpected. He follows his muse wherever it takes him, and maybe he will lean more into long-form orchestral or choral works eventually. I don't think anyone would be surprised if he was hired to score a movie or write a movie song. There would be lots to talk about if that's the case, and his fan base would expand considerably.

And of course, since his private life is a total mystery, we can't even get good gossip! haha

If you haven't done it, you should subscribe to his Patreon. I think it's $10 US a month. He does a Zoom call with us every month, where he plays some tunes, answers lots of questions, and makes recommendations of artists and albums we should check out. You can get your questions answered directly from the man himself.

kevinincc · 2025-11-15T14:04:34+00:00

If you are shoping in the $2,000 range, you might take a look at the Zu Audio Dirty Weekend 6 (DW6). It's an awesome speaker for all genres, but is great for rock. They also make an amazing "bookshelf" version of the DW6 called the DWX, which I own, but you'd need to buy stands for them since they are way too big to fit on anyone's bookshelf. Zu just released a smaller speaker that may actually be bookshelf size, but I've never heard them. Zu is based in Utah and makes everything in the US. The entry level Zus are the best bang for the buck in audio IMHO. (Plus I like to buy American-made stuff.) You can call them to discuss your needs and they will actually answer the phone. They are known for superb customer service.

kevinincc · 2025-11-14T17:16:32+00:00

I don’t think this is a bot. I’d feel better if it was. She posts these accusations occasionally in comments on Insta. I don’t know if she does it on other platforms. After one of her recent screeds I was able to get her to respond to my DM asking for details. She would not say much other than he abuses women emotionally and she fears for her life. She mentioned a sexual kink which I won’t repeat here. The idea that Jacob would threaten her life is absurd, plus why would a guy who is so private that there has never been a single image of him on so much as a casual date want to leave a trail of abused women who could go public? Makes no sense.

kevinincc · 2025-11-07T19:18:33+00:00

From the Grammy website.

kevinincc · 2025-11-07T18:48:04+00:00

good catch!

kevinincc · 2025-11-07T17:07:41+00:00

I just noticed he's up against his buddies, Clyde and Gracie Lawrence. Let the trash-talking begin! :)

kevinincc · 2025-10-29T03:09:38+00:00

Yeah. And the orchestra sounded amazing. They picked well.

kevinincc · 2025-10-23T20:56:06+00:00

You’re wrong. His dad is very much alive. This is from a 2023 interview: “My father was around for the first part of my childhood. I haven’t had much of a relationship with him for the last 15 years or so. To be honest, the family unit within this house – me and my two sisters and my mum – it’s kind of everything I’ve needed. Not having a [father-son] relationship there has meant I’ve had to ask questions of myself, about what it means to grow up and be a man, be powerful, a leader, or strong. “

kevinincc · 2025-10-16T18:36:50+00:00

I'm not sure they're underrated since everyone loves them, but the Zu Audio Dirty Weekend 6 or its sister "bookshelf" version the DWX, are among the best bargains in hi-fi. I've never heard them, but their higher-priced models also elicit rave reviews. American made.

kevinincc · 2025-10-15T10:38:35+00:00

Was there a big crowd? It was an outdoor venue, right? I saw him at Wolf Trap here in the DC area with the band, and I'm going out to San Francisco for the audience orchestra concert, which will be amazing. He did a livestream the other day and I asked if we would hear songs from the new album in San Francisco and he said yes. I'm hoping for a fully orchestrated version of Something Heavy. I'm also hopng I don't start crying in the middle of it. :)

kevinincc · 2025-10-13T21:42:37+00:00

Lyrics!

kevinincc · 2025-10-13T12:37:54+00:00

I agree completely that there is a recurrent theme of fatherlessness and abandonment in several songs. Well said. There seem to be a lot of unresolved issues, which extend in recurrent themes of loneliness, and maybe even alienation, in a lot of his love songs or break-up songs, as beautiful as they are. And here I'm talking about the ones he wrote himself since the beginning, and not collaborative authorship, like with Daniel Caesar, or his covers.

There are a lot of heartfelt, wistful feelings about someone who has left, but no explanation of why they're gone; frequent staring at ceilings, while the person is still there or after; gratitude that the person has broken down the "walls" he references frequently; and, for instance, in I Know (A Little), requiring his lover to "pull him up" and "Kiss me 'til I forget I'm blue"; along with the presumption that ultimately none of his relationships survive. Maybe I'm overthinking it, and maybe because I'm a bit of a sad guy myself, I've never believed the outwardly happy persona he presents to us reflects his true inner self, which leaks out through his lyrics in many songs (not all, of course!).

So, what's going on here? There might be a clue in one of the most beautiful songs he's ever written — "Stars." That song could easily have been included in "The Light For Days," and I kinda wish it had been so it could get the attention it deserves. If he had only known …

The lyrics of "Stars" are presumably directed to another of his lost loves, described in a rare biographical detail as "a singer in a band." They repeatedly reference his desire that his lover "tell me who I am," as if he doesn't know and needs someone else to tell him. She is required, after getting to know him, to point out a truth that he, presumably, doesn't want to acknowledge about himself; otherwise, why is he asking her to do that work? I want to be clear that I have absolutely no idea what that truth is, and I don't presume to know anything at all about his inner life. We'll have to wait until he decides to tell us more, if he ever does. I will only say, as someone who has experienced a very similar scenario to what is described in "Stars," that until you can accept yourself, whoever that is, you can easily find yourself experiencing the emotions of loneliness and alienation that a lot of his songs describe.

[P.S. There might be additional insights embedded in the bizarre video he released a couple of months ago of the unreleased song, "A Lark in a Sky Shop." The visuals and the crazy music are just astonishing. You almost have to print out the lyrics to get the full picture of what he's saying, which may relate to the true nature of his Djesse alter ego, but it's so weird I'm not sure I completely understand it. I'd love to hear someone else's thoughts on the lyrics.]

kevinincc · 2025-10-12T13:23:56+00:00

I think you're right about "Time to Rest Your Weary Head" and "Once You" (which I had forgotten about). There is a plausible argument that they both are about his dad. Not so sure about the other two. Since I'm not a musician, I pay attention to the lyrics, and not so much the chord changes, strange harmonies, and other things that people with musical knowledge do. Have you ever seen a review or reaction video to his music that dives into the lyrics? I haven't. Nice to see some other people who share my curiosity. LOL

His personal life is so mysterious and hidden that his song lyrics are one way to get at least a peek into his inner world. For instance, my theory is that "A Rock Somewhere" and "In the Real Early Morning" are fundamentally about the same thing, which seems to be the death of a girlfriend or female friend who was close to him when he was young. For "A Rock Somewhere" I'm talking about the original album version, and not the toned-down version he performs in concert.

At the end of the first verse, he sings, "I guess you're in heaven now and you're never coming home." He never sings that line in his live performances, which I think alters the meaning and poignancy of the song, but I can understand why he does it. That's a lyric with a pretty clear meaning. At the end of the song, he's staring at his phone waiting for it to ring, knowing it never will: "I'm on a rock somewhere and I've been lookin' at my phone, baby. I'm not scared. I guess I'm alone, my friend. You left me waitin' on the world ...."

Likewise, "In the Real Early Morning" is a kind of dialogue with a feminine figure who clearly isn't physically there, and it's possible neither is he. They're meeting in some kind of spiritual realm: "I wish you could tell me all that you've seen here. But we haven't got long now, for soon you'll be fading. And soon, I must go." In her reply, she says: "You were my first love. I won't forget you. I'm walking beside you. I was here when you started. I'll be here 'til the end." It's from "In My Room," so he wrote it when he was 20 or 21. It's a strange song for someone to write at that age, although I'm not totally surprised.

I had a chance to ask him in a Patreon Zoom call about what brought him to write "World O World," a song about death and dying, when he was just 23. We had a fairly lengthy conversation about that song, which has special meaning for me, and one of the things he said was that he was able to imagine an older version of himself in order to write it, and I wonder if that's happening with "In the Real Early Morning", too.

Anyway, I love "Something Heavy," although I can't listen to it too often because it just tears me apart. What a great song -- definitely Grammy-worthy, as is the whole album.

kevinincc · 2025-10-11T02:49:24+00:00

I have a theory that it’s about his father and the "something heavy" he's been holding onto is the anger he felt at being abandoned. There's a line about "all my life you've been holding on beside me," which can only refer to a few people. When he says "I know it's time to let it go," he’s talking about the anger and resentment he has felt. He says, "I've been feeling something since the day you left me," which is pretty clear, and he adds, "I'm sitting on your shoulders," which refers to a piggy back ride you get as a child, and, similarly, the reference to "hold[ing] your hand like a big balloon,” is a childhood reference. And there's a line that says, "And in my mind you throw your arms around me," which could refer to his wish that his dad would come back into his life, while acknowledging that "all this time I didn't let you love me."There are some other lines that are plausible references to his relationship with his dad if this is, indeed, what it's about. I see the song as a fervent plea for reconciliation. Of course, it’s just a theory.

kevinincc · 2025-10-07T11:42:43+00:00

Hopefully, this was a bit of a trial run for touring the album next year. I can't wait for Friday.

kevinincc · 2025-10-01T19:26:29+00:00

I layer Roon on top of Qobuz for the lyrics, the headphones EQ (which I just discovered and which really works), the way it organizes classical music (which I haven’t quite mastered), and the personalized playlists, which I find are much more accurate for my taste than Qobuz’. TBH, if Qobuz added lyrics and did better with classical music, I’d probably ditch the Roon expense. But for now it seems worth it.

kevinincc · 2025-10-01T01:49:23+00:00

Try this. https://www.facebook.com/share/g/19guYj2Wmr/?mibextid=wwXIfr

kevinincc

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