Tobias Jesso Jr. - Goon
Critic Score
Based on 26 reviews
2015 Ratings: #148 / 1021
Year End Rank: #50
User Score
Based on 337 ratings
2015 Rank: #202
Liked by 9 people
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CRITIC REVIEWS

100
NOW Magazine

Goon is an indisputable triumph and a staggering opening statement from pop music's newest Piano Man.

95
Northern Transmissions

Goon is a classic pop masterpiece built around Jesso’s own naivety and innocence, and instead of feeling like an effort milked by record label executives to promote musical purity, Jesso’s untainted craftsmanship comes away remarkably unaffected and sheer.

91
Consequence of Sound

Jesso writes with fragility at the forefront. The fact that he doesn’t realize how pure his songwriting is makes it that much better.

90
Paste

Goon is mostly excellent slow songs about heartbreak, about the fear of failure, about losing your direction and hoping to find it. 

85
Pitchfork

Jesso has a knack for writing songs that you feel like you’ve heard before, even if you can’t quite pin down a precise antecedent. Which is another way of saying he writes songs that sound "classic" in the best sense of the word.

83
A.V. Club

For all its emotional oscillation—from lust, to feeling used, remorse, then impatience—Goon never feels disjointed, partly because the songs are sewn together by the album’s ongoing lyrical obsessions.

80
Exclaim!
Like all good pop songwriters, Jesso Jr. is a master of making personal moments seem universal, with most of his words seeming like parts of a hazy memory rather than a concrete story.
80
Spill Magazine

All in all, if you’re looking for an honest, earnest, back-to-basics album full of straightforward sonic delights, then Goon is definitely worth checking out.

80
Spectrum Culture

It’s a remarkably assured debut that arrives feeling fully formed, quietly confident and carrying with it traces of the best of a bygone era.

80
The Telegraph

Comparisons with Nilsson and early solo McCartney are high praise, but at his softer side it all threatens to go a bit Gilbert O’Sullivan. Yet this is a lovely debut and its innocence is a big part of its charm. Goon is genuinely touching, a lesson in how music can heal a broken heart.

80
The Line of Best Fit

He doesn’t claim to have all the answers—from a strictly epistemological stand-point, Jesso Jr. makes note of how little his experiences in the world have taught him – and it is surely the simplicity of the universe on Goon that offers it and the artist their charm.

80
DIY
‘Goon’ is gluttonously full of rich sounds, but it’s the running thread that counts: That voice, and its ability to sing about experiences like they’re universal stories, not a means of self-indulgence.
80
The 405

His voice, along with his piano, is crisp and clear throughout the album, but it also contains enticing nuances that mysteriously enthralls. 

80
NME

Gloopy, orchestral and lovingly plumped up with strings and skronking brass ... it's driven by 29-year-old Jesso’s huge personality and sounds designed to stay with you.

75
Pretty Much Amazing

Goon is adept enough to say what it wants to, and flawed enough to appear derived from reality.

74
Sputnikmusic
‘Goon’ surpasses any suggestion of mediocrity by a significant margin. How and why isn’t quite so easy to pinpoint, but it clearly has a lot to do with the man himself.
70
Rolling Stone

His debut LP gathers 12 beautifully lean ballads sung in a vulnerable tenor, with vintage studio touches blended by sharp producers

70
Loud and Quiet

Don’t approach this record with a jaded mindset which rejects its unoriginal theme and unchallenging style – instead, stomp down those weary-minded objections and soak in the genuinely engaging strength of the songwriting and its skilful, less-is-more delivery.

70
Clash

'Goon' is not perfect, but it's the imperfections and the straight honesty that bleeds through it that make it so appealing.

70
FLOOD Magazine
Jesso may proudly wear his influences, but he possesses a candor not usually heard from other indie artists.
70
AllMusic

There's not much one can do to deny the emotional weight or the eerily '70s character of Goon; it's probably best to settle into the La-Z-Boy, flick feathered hair off of your polyester lapel, grab a box of tissues, and let it be.

70
The Sydney Morning Herald

The LP evokes LA both lyrically and tonally: Jesso's sentimental, self-critical, piano-centric songs deeply indebted to Nilsson Sings Newman and Van Dyke Parks' Song Cycle.

60
The Guardian

There are certainly moments during Goon when you start to wonder if it might not be nice to hear something by an acclaimed American singer-songwriter that sounds like it was recorded in 2015, rather than 1974.

60
SPIN

The majority of cuts on Goon still feel like demos: languidly spaced chords, carefully measured arpeggiation, and hardly anything so gauche as a groove.

60
PopMatters

Goon isn’t great, at least in terms of its ambitions, but it is a fine example of what might evolve from pure pop purpose.

SnowyFighter
74

Oooooh prettyyy

Yeah this is a very solid album. Thank you for @moth alice for recommending this one to me. I really enjoyed this! This has a very simple take on lyrical themes, but it's very relatable. it's nothing you have to pick apart and try to decipher but sometimes that is a good thing and in this case, it is. I really love piano centered stuff so this was already something I knew I would at least like, and I did. Nothing too crazy or absolutely mind blowing, but it's just good ... read more

lerkenfeldt
86

I still remember stumbling across Tobias Jesso Jr. on soundcloud a little over a year ago now, and i immediately thought that this was something special, and it turns out i was right. I think the thing i like most about this record, other than the music itself, is how "timeless" it feels. This album would have worked just as well in 1971 as it does now in 2015, and to me, the ability to make music that manages to transcend and go beyond the era in witch it is made, is what it is all ... read more

andyintoronto
77

Best tracks. How could you babe. Without you

steelflora
78

nice little goon sesh

SnowyFighter
74

Oooooh prettyyy

Yeah this is a very solid album. Thank you for @moth alice for recommending this one to me. I really enjoyed this! This has a very simple take on lyrical themes, but it's very relatable. it's nothing you have to pick apart and try to decipher but sometimes that is a good thing and in this case, it is. I really love piano centered stuff so this was already something I knew I would at least like, and I did. Nothing too crazy or absolutely mind blowing, but it's just good ... read more

andyintoronto
77

Best tracks. How could you babe. Without you

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Added on: December 22, 2014