JVC (Deluxe) is a 21-track expanded edition of Jack Van Cleaf’s sophomore record. It includes tracks that were previously exclusive to vinyl, plus demos of original songs and live performances.
Of the songs he says : "This is me grappling with adulthood, trying to figure out who I am as an adult, and how that reckons with who I was as a kid."
Shouldn’t Have Gone To LA is about him trying to balance a “penchant for escape” with a need to find a place to get his head together.
Finding gallows humour in other potentially depressing subjects like ageing, alienation and anxiety are real strengths in this album. The ‘It’ in Thinkin’ About It is suicide; as dark as it gets. He keeps things real but brings a genuine humanity to the table too.
Van Cleaf doesn’t trivialise addiction to hard drugs but he doesn’t get heavy about it either; “you can be the lighter in my spoon” he sings on Using You.
Guest appearances enhance rather than distract. Heaven Schmitt (aka Grumpy), Charli Adams, and Annika Bennett add vocal harmonies and he duets with Gatlin for Teenage Vampire
For Rattlesnakes he shares vocals with Zach Bryan in a song full of quotable lines e.g “love is like a rattlesnake, before it bites, it tries to warn you.”
In tune with the starkness of many of the songs, the album was recorded in barren locations like Joshua Tree and the Texas/Mexico border.
Lyrically he blends bitter experience and self-doubt with wit and a disarming sincerity and makes it seem effortless.
