Album Review: Tobias Jesso Jr -- Goon

Tobias Jesso Jr is shaping up to be one of those Hollywood zero-to-hero stories.

It started with Jesso sending a hopeful email to Chet “JR” White (from the band Girls) and ended with him shacked up on White’s couch recording Goon. The result is a fearless collection of piano-driven ballads that evoke the big-hitters of yore. Nowhere in recent memory has an entire album full of such shamelessly heart-on-sleeve piano ballads been attempted by an artist on an indie label, let alone executed with such deft, evocative precision.