It’s three in the morning; you’re driving home; it could be raining; it could be eerily calm. Whatever the circumstances, it’s time for that thing we all do when we’re completely alone with our own thoughts… that’s right, we think! And it doesn’t always lead us to the best of places. While many songs can be used to fire up the brain’s imagination, few have that uncanny ability to channel our contemplation into something deeper, and further still, contemplate along with you. With “Mojo Pin,” by Jeff Buckley, the sensation is of a conscious entity reaching out to hold your hand while you traverse the darkest regions of your psyche. Jeff Buckley’s certainly been there, and for him it was the tragic lamentations that come with longing. It’s in his lyrics, it’s in the sensually-charged background, the tear-drop guitar intro, the synthesized “quiver”, and the turbulent thrashing at the song’s end. But it’s his tenor, breathy vocals that serve as the unequivocal powerhouse for the song, where we can hear him stow the fiber of his being into every note, drawing it across the verses in a seamless but unsteady arch, pervading each chord like a memory that won’t let go.
