Song - "Embers". Artist - Just Jack. Outcome #1 - Brilliant. Outcome #2 - Memorable.

Hearken back to 2009! I'm a little impatient at the moment, so make it quick. Your hearkening that is.

"Embers" from Just Jack may be the last song in my listening history, that upon hitting the first play, it remained on instantaneous repeat at least 12-15 times. There was a point in time I had to properly move on with life. Then I believe I did it again at some point the following day. It wasn't just because it was a beautiful tune in itself, but equally the production was so well conceived and delivery perfection. It was, and I believe still is, quite unique.

Yes, Just Jack has a knack for working with programming and sampling, but he also has a reputation for composing and recording with organic instrumentation at the most necessary and tasteful levels. Just give his 2002 "The Outer Marker" release a few listens, and that should lay it all out. That is why his art is superior to most of his contemporaries, who lack the ability to compose outside of the digital universe or lazily just bypass the extra grind.

Structurally, "Embers" is tightly compacted TRANCE. Just not electronic. For anyone uneducated in the electronic music genre (primarily referred to as EDM nowadays), the popular subgenre titled trance tends to have a general construction philosophy of the recordings. Start with a base rhythm/melody/harmony template that remains the underbelly throughout the track. Then introduce an additional rhythm/melody/harmony on top of the underbelly. What follows is the removal of a portion (or even all) of that second section and another rhythm/melody/harmony comes into play. Then rinse and repeat, as far as you want to go, UNTILLLL ... slowly congealing all of your miniature works together, and taking the song to wherever and however you want the musical climax to go.

Jack and his producer, Jay Reynolds didn't build "Embers" with a keyboard, buttons, and a computer screen. This was manufactured with guitar, drums, string section, vocals, hand claps, and it's so tight you could sandwich it between Massive Attack and Thievery Corporation. It's melodically joyous, uplifting, and although I imagine it took a great deal of sweat to capture every crisp detail, there is also a beauty to its end-to-end fundamental simplicity.

Always remind yourself. As a society, we must listen, or should I say suffer, through a plethora of garbage to arrive at gems like "Embers" and artists such as Just Jack.