Aaron Taos Drops the Perfect Roadtrip Album With 'juniper: the long drive'
Aaron Taos has created the perfect album for the road in juniper: the long drive. In the second installment of his indie rock and folk album, juniper, he dedicates the project to his namesake, Taos, New Mexico. With a whopping 25 tracks, the album is heavily inspired by classic rock greats like The Eagles, Tom Petty, and The Beatles while still showcasing Taos' vulnerable, vivid lyricism, and rich and raw instrumentation.
"The name 'the long drive' is in reference to the frequent road trips I take between LA and Taos, NM, where my mom lives," shares Taos. "The trip is usually around 15 hours and much of the album was written while driving. I am usually scrambling to find enough music to keep me sane during those journeys, and I love having the time to put on albums to listen to front to back. This project is meant to be a road trip album for those sorts of occasions. I've spent so much of my life the last couple years on the road through the American southwest - it's been an important piece of my story. This album is meant for the open road, high sun and big sky."
The record opens with the sounds of crickets chirping, the crunch of gravelly dirt, and a lonely breeze that can only be felt in the isolation of a southwestern desert. Taos then eases the listener from the foley of "juniper rd" to the rustic yet gentle guitar strums of "i will always love you." A collage of horns, mellow pop percussion, and support from grooving bass and rhythm guitar fill out the production as the singer's warm and comforting vocals promise that despite potentially hurting our hearts, he "won't break it apart."
"you won't..." sees Taos take a deeper, darker tone as he explores the complex feelings that can follow a breakup. Pouring his pent-up emotions into the track, listeners can feel the catharsis that no doubt came with the creation. With a hypnotic bassline supporting his melancholic delivery, he croons, "I could write this little song / How I miss you all day long/ And it wouldn't change a thing," admitting that regret is a slippery slope that he now has to deal with. In the summery chorus, he admits that if his ex "came calling, I'd come right back home," but she most likely won't, recognizing that he took her for granted and must now deal with the consequences.
On the following "ctrl-z," Taos continues to wrestle with his regrets. Over downtempo instrumentation, he wonders what could have been and how different things could have played out if he had pressed some sort of undo button. Although it may be one of the shorter songs on the record, it packs a heavy punch with deep, heart-wrenching lyrics like, "If I hit ctrl-z, would we know where to end? / Or would it all play out the same way again? / Are we just destined for tears and deceit?"
"Underneath," a personal favorite track, is a song that, according to the artist is "about doing shrooms for the first time." The sonics ooze with a Western daydream charm, feeling subtly psychedelic but not at all out of place with the rest of the project. There's a sense of healing as Taos ponders on "the roads we leave un-tried" and the individual realities we all experience. Despite life's paradoxes and unknowable's, he declares that he still feels love in his heart, and "it's a love that never ends" that dwells in the depths of every person.
Other standout tracks include the heartening and inspirational "taos" and the absolute banger that is "everything, anything, or nothing at all." The former sees the artist speak of his namesake, reflecting on his youth and offering encouragement to his younger self, present self, and perhaps anyone listening via the singular mantra "Keep going." In the latter track, there is an undeniable swagger in line delivery as he vividly describes the stressful and fearful predicaments of the people in his life, eventually discovering the beauty in the sadness.
juniper: the long drive reaches its final destination in "love & war." It starts as an introspective ballad fueled by lulling vocals and the gentle, flowing guitar strums that Taos has been using to serenade and engage the listener for the last 24 tracks. On a quest to search for the things he doesn't know, he admits that the more he looks, the more lost he becomes. The track explores life's dichotomies as a troupe of joyful horns, light percussion, and rich, textural rhythms bleed into the production, creating a sonic experience that wraps the listener in the most comforting blanket of sound as he coos, "Where there's love, there's war."
In the final track, and much of juniper: the long drive, Taos preaches that there can be no good without the bad, and that's ok because, ultimately, you can't grow flowers in the desert without a bit of rain.
Listen to juniper: the long drive below:
