Based on the title and release date of Jess Kerber’s new album, it seems like the Nashville-based songwriter wasn’t counting on the American voting public to make midterms week a tolerable experience. That title—The World Is Dark, but I Want It to Be Funny—probably says all you need to know about the tone of the songwriter’s second LP (and first release since signing to Felte Records, who also reissued her 2022 debut From Way Down Here last summer), while the music itself reflects that glimmer of self-made optimism in an ever-darkening world. Meanwhile, Kerber’s hometown setting provides an alt-country shading to these nine songs, which tends to overshadow the gothic ambiance native to her label’s past discography.
Before the album drops this Friday, Kerber is sharing a live video of the album’s piano-ballad title track performed alongside the cut’s vocal collaborator Emily Hines. Stripping the yet-unreleased original recording of its layer of pedal steel, the version presented below still adheres to the studio recording’s minimalism. “This song came from a place of realizing that every single time I have tried to find humor or focus on the casualness of daily activities in whatever bad situation I am in, it’s helped me to accept the bigger picture,” Kerber shares. “That’s not to say that low moments have to be intellectualized or not validated, but living in a time where so many levels of humanity are constantly being challenged, we have to look inward and be more creative in the ways that we pick ourselves back up. As much as darkness is an inevitability, so is all of the lightness.”
Check out the performance video below, and pre-order The World Is Dark here.
