Hello Stranger Album Deep Dive

Thunder Jackson

For Thunder Jackson, the line between his art and his personal journey of self-discovery has blurred

Resulting in his well-crafted, often cathartic second album, 'Hello Stranger'. For the @thunderjackson (who was born Kyle Bradley), the sumptuous collection of songs is an intentionally unfiltered and unflinching view into the man he has become – flaws and all.

“There were these moments I had looking myself in the mirror, seeing a different face every day,” he says. “Faces that I used to run away from. It was like these scattered identities desperately wanted to be seen and heard. When I sat down to write this album, I wrote from the perspective of these different feelings and persons. I started to embrace these strangers slowly but surely, and that embrace became more of a hello rather than goodbye.”

The album Hello Stranger was produced by Jackson and Taylor Johnson and mixed by Grammy and ARIA award winner Eric J (Flume, Weezer, St. Vincent). It effectively showcases Jackson at his most vulnerable yet commandingly charismatic. He performs with a gritty warmth and relatability throughout the set, ranging from intimate ballads to arena-ready rockers.

With that, here is a look at each track from 'Hello Stranger.'

Spoonfed Desire

The album opens with a flourish of melancholic strings that give way to a pensive, piano-driven ballad. The prophetic lyric “one day I will wake up to find that I am proud” sets the tone for an album that promises catharsis, one that will likely come at a cost. “I was going through a tough time when I wrote the song,” he recalls,

“Everyone has an answer on how to fix your problems, I discovered. What I realized is that I tend to be a stubborn guy. I needed to follow my natural instincts, make lots of mistakes, and get to the right place for me in my own way.”

Hello Stranger

The album’s title song is one of its most beautifully elaborate, fondly recalling the ‘70s era of rock theatricality that made Queen and Elton John icons. Jackson moves through an arrangement of whimsical strings and complex piano lines with a vocal that begins in a state of emotional trepidation, eventually building to a crescendo of confidence.

“The idea for ‘Hello Stranger’ was born out of the feeling of being reintroduced to your true self after feeling lost for a long time,” Jackson says. “The song is indicative of the entire album, which is about no longer hiding behind half-truths and metaphors. It’s about facing yourself, warts and all.”

The Fever and the Dream

A commanding rocker that continues the artist’s deep exploration of his psyche. He explains,

“All self-reflections and realizations tend to be a perilous journey. But this song, like so many others I’ve written, allows me to move forward with a fair degree of confidence. Music is always there to save me in the end. It’s how I make sense of my life.”

Steady Freddy

An early single release that shows Jackson at his most charismatic and confident as a performer within an up-tempo rock arrangement that is framed by layers of intricate guitar/drum interplay and sitar flourishes. Overall, ‘Steady Freddy’ is rooted in authentic, organic sounds that the artist believes are a

“necessary antidote to the plastic world we’re currently living in.”

Terminal Uniqueness

A track that is rooted in swampy blues and vintage R&B. The groove is raw and rugged, sparking one of Jackson’s more gutsy and ingenuous vocals. The track builds to a tumultuous climax of beats and vocal chants that drive home the song’s ultimate point:

“Not all of us are unique in a way that makes sense to the world at large,” Jackson says. “But that doesn’t make it bad. It just sets us apart from the world in a way that takes time for everyone – including ourselves – to understand.”

Grace Kelly

An exquisite, utterly heartbreaking piano ballad that showcases Jackson at his absolute finest – as both a composer and as a singer. He performs with an empathetic ache in his voice as he unfurls lyrics that trace a life of broken promises and dreams in peril of fading. When he sings “and heroes never lose,” the rueful pain in his voice is, by turns, shattering and haunting. As the song concludes with the words “don’t get too old to leave this town of ours,” it’s painfully clear that it might be too late for some.

Wasted Talent

A spare, but provocative rumination on the internal tug-of-war that arises from existential compromise. “Why do I have to change for you?” he spews angrily before mournfully pondering “what happened to the boy I know… the one that danced in the sky?” Sonically, the track is a remarkable study in restraint, thanks largely to the Eric J’s mix, which smartly avoids the temptation to over-inflate the instrumentation surrounding Jackson’s performance. “I was set up for success [by Eric],” the artist says. “His work on this album has been nothing short of divine intervention.”

I Let Ghosts

Jackson cuts loose on an infectious, jazz-spiced rocker that unfolds like a live jam session, replete with propulsive drums and an arena-ready chorus chant. It’s also another example of the combustible studio chemistry he shares with Eric J.

Modern World

'Modern World' is one of Jackson’s more direct and observational compositions. It’s a sweetly melodic ballad that also feels like the end-credit theme to a movie that has yet to be written; which may not be coincidental. “I basically locked myself in my small apartment in Los Angeles with only a mattress and a grand piano for a year and worked and studied relentlessly at perfecting the craft of song writing and piano playing,” he says.

“I became obsessed with dynamics and creating moments, specifically with the moments of playing these songs for a crowd. It felt like I was writing a screenplay with these songs as the director.”

War and TV Dinners

Jackson takes a rare moment to soak in the turbulence of the external world, digesting and making sense of how it informs the human psyche. Moreover, it allows him to effectively reflect how it creates an indescribably desperate hunger to be more than another faceless figure in a world of 'War and TV dinners.

In The Movies

'In the Movies' is an intense piano ballad that traces the unraveling of a romantic relationship. Jackson builds from the song’s somber words of resignation verse to a raw, chest-pounding crescendo of “you’re not here with me,” playing out like a tragic story of a movie during which one character ends up bereft and alone. It’s a wrenching denouement that Jackson plays with gusty power. I wanted this song to capture the “extraordinary heartbreak of a relationship that could not survive the tension and intensity triggered by one person who is still struggling to find his true self and a feeling of inner peace. It all plays out like a tragic story in a movie, where one character ends up bereft and alone. But in real life, the pain doesn’t subside after the credits roll. In fact, it might even get worse.”

Ruby

'Hello Stranger' closes with a simple and elegant ballad. It opens with an ethereal quality that shows Jackson’s journey arriving somewhere between peace and even more questions, which is ultimately the truth of life. There is no destination, only more road to travel. “Change is a season like spring,” he sings with the wisdom of a human who has taken life’s knocks and keeps getting up. And much as he describes the character of Ruby, he has “no worry at all.