We Do Really Love Jake Timothy
By Sarah Fournell
Jake Timothy says he has evolved from being “messy” as a musician. His new EP Do U Really Love Me corroborates this claim, with his growth as a musician shining on each track. With an orange and brown cat named Kitty curled up at his feet, he reminisced on his old music, which he made solely for the enjoyment of his friends. His growth as a musician came with the growth of his audience, with a whopping 34,500 monthly listeners on Spotify.
His single “Fell For U” was a work of pure serendipity, with its origins in the requests of complete strangers. It came to him in November 2020, when he was in a “desert of music making.” On a scroll through TikTok, he came across a 50’s instrumental track and made a quick video, riffing off some lines that he thought accompanied the track well. Afterwards he closed the app and went on with his day. Hours later, he received an influx of texts from friends nudging him to check the app. To his surprise the video had gained thousands of views and his follower count increased by 30,000. His comments were flooded with requests to write a full song, which he did, over the course of a week in his bedroom in New Hampshire.
With the traction gained by “Fell For U,” Timothy was inspired to write again. He brought in friend Ryan Geis, who produces his own music under the name Ryan Violet, to play guitar on his following 2021 singles, “Graveyard of Love Songs” and “I Miss U (Wanted U To Know),” which are both featured on the EP.
With three singles under his belt, he set out to compile a seven track EP, with variation in their sounds but united in the theme of heartbreak. He brought Geis in as a collaborator, and they worked completely remotely to produce Do U Really Love Me over the course of four months. Timothy wrote the lyrics and Geis did the instrumentation and production on the EP. Despite their physical distance, they were entirely on the same page, swapping audio files back and forth and bouncing ideas off of each other’s feedback. Citing Billie Eilish, Frank Sinatra, and PinkPantheress as his influences, Timothy knew exactly what he wanted his new venture to sound like.
Opening with the bittersweet and somber “Graveyard of Love Songs,” Timothy begs the titular question, “Do you really love me?”. With its melancholy lyrics, laid back lo-fi beats, and atmospheric chorus, “Graveyard of Love Songs” embodies the current state of bedroom pop. The distress of the lyrics melts into the dreaminess of the beat, until the haziness comes to a halt with a repetition of the line “We’re going down.”
Bouncing back from the despair of the opening track, Timothy smoothly transitions into a flirty bossa nova beat and asks “You going down?” The jovial “I Think We Might Go To Hell,” which Timothy described as “an elevator-y” song, calls attention to his a cappella roots. The kitschy elevator beat fades into a slow jazzy pop track, akin to a Rex Orange County hit, equipped with hazy layered vocals and cheeky references to Hercules. He follows with the familiar “Fell For U,” which has recently surpassed a million streams on Spotify. The cute piano line masked with a relaxed electronic drum beat creates a bluesy twist on ambient electropop.
Timothy then channels his hyperpop influences on “Listen2me,” a duet with fellow Emerson student Austin Hand. Keeping within the theme of elegiac heartbreak songs, the track reflects on a love turned one-sided and cold. Timothy’s deep croon is countered delightfully with Hand’s soft vocal inflections. Their harmonisations culminate in a charming hyperpop-esque lullaby.
Staying in the lane of slow heartbreak songs, Timothy’s mom’s favorite,“I Miss U (Wanted U To Know)” is his most vulnerable song yet. His vocals stand out best against the consistent acoustic guitar riff that guides the track through intimate memories of a one-sided relationship. Despite the sentiment of inconsolable heartbreak present throughout the song, he ends with the line “I’m proud of you, just wanted you to know.” He then picks the pieces of his broken heart up off of the floor with the muted yet pulsing, “Honeymoon Phase.” The song begins with a simple electronic drum beat and musings on the sickly-sweet happiness that accompanies the early stages of a relationship. As he questions the legitimacy of his emotions, the track escalates into an acoustic drum beat interrupted by a discordant electric guitar line.
Wrapping up with “U Don’t Really Love Me,” Timothy truly showcases his aptitude for genre bending. Starting out slow and sweet, like a barbershop quartet-esque ballad, “U Don’t Really Love Me” is an excellent display of his versatility as a vocalist. Right when your tears begin to glisten while you’re swaying under the disco ball that dropped from the ceiling to the tune of a beautiful brass line, the song quickly crescendos into a lamentation of a relationship that “turned so out of hand.” With the heartbreak comes a symphony of electric guitars, hard hitting drums, and a confessional bridge. On initial listen, Timothy firmly told Geis “Don’t Touch! This is the craziest shit I’ve ever heard in my life.” Inspired by the bridge on Billie Eilish track “Happier Than Ever,” Timothy described the song as “a beast to produce.”
Do U Really Love Me is an excellent display of experimentation within the realm of familiarity. Timothy’s alluring voice has a distinctly old soul, providing a fresh yet timeless take on the trends of today’s pop music. He has created an amateur instant classic with his freshman EP, which is available now on all streaming platforms.