Android Love is the latest single from John Adam Ian, taken from his forthcoming album, Midlife Crisis.
Matt Carter
In the liner notes for his upcoming album, New Brunswick songwriter John Adam Ian hints at the inspiration behind his latest string of singles and his forthcoming release.
“In 2020, I battled mental health and depression,” he wrote. “I began writing again to occupy my time. I was filled with inspiration, ideas, and songs. I felt intense regret for ignoring this part of myself for six years. The urge to create became inescapable. This album captures those feelings and realizations.”
A simple statement filled with unimaginable weight. Depression takes many forms and affects each of us in its own way. Thankfully, whether you are a performer or a listener, music can be an incredible healer.
John Adam Ian, or Jai Sadler, depending on when you might have first encountered his music, was once the driving force behind the progressive hardcore band, We Thee Undersigned. But that was a long time ago. More than a decade at this point. Since his days traveling the country with his bandmates in a van full of gear, Sadler has allowed his muse to lead the way, shifting from the aggressive riffs and breakneck tempos of his past projects into new territory. Channeling relaxed tempos, familiar chord structures, and a lot more pop sensibility than he may have shown in the past, his new music stands to reach a wider audience. Although that’s not really the point. Sadler is no longer a career musician and for him, like many, music is a means of creativity, a tool for understanding experience, and a way of making sense of the world. It’s freedom in the most literal sense.
Android Love is power-pop, dialed back to near ballad form. Big chords that sound familiar, but new. Like all good songs that stick in our heads long after they are over, Android Love leaves us with more questions than answers. Is Sadler singing about a robot he built and fell in love with? Is he comparing emotional companionship to something formulated and impersonal? Is he talking about his phone? We don’t know. But that’s the point isn’t it?
Sadler plays bass and guitars, and demonstrates some incredible vocal control as he shifts from verse to chorus and back again. The way he structures this song isn’t anything new, but the way in which he chose to sing the lyrics gives Android Love a highly personal feel. Almost like the verses are intended only for the listener’s ears, and the chorus is for the neighbour’s. This cause-and-effect delivery really captures the broken heart scenario that plays out over the song’s four minute run time.
Midlife Crisis arrives October 17. Visit John Adam Ian on Bandcamp to pre-order the release and hear three other songs from the album. Android Love is also available on Apple Music.
