New Music | Jeen - Buena Vista
That’s right, folks, it’s time once again for Canadian Content Tuesdays! Just kidding, every day is Can-Con day for me (and it should be for you too). Today’s entry is from Toronto’s Jeen. Jeen O’Brien goes by her first name and has played with or written for a slew of Canadian bands and artists. “Buena Vista” is the lead-off track from her upcoming solo album, Tourist, and it doesn’t get more Canadian than the fact that the album is only really upcoming in America. Like many Canadian artists, she already released the album in Canada, where our various Canadian counterparts enjoyed it a great deal, and it’s now coming out in the US with some additional material. I can think of 2 bands off the top of my head that did this exact thing when I was in high school, and I’m sure hundreds more have done it before and since. It’s kind of funny; the strategy assumes that Americans won’t like it enough as it is, even though Canadians did, and you have to plump it up for US consumption. Dear Canada, stop having an inferiority complex about your bands. They are good enough just the way they are.
Jeen is definitely good enough. The song is a fun, hand-clappy, lo-fi hip shaker, and the album offers similar treats (and a couple that slow it down a little and go in a folkier direction). Not only that, but you wanna talk about “DIY or die,” Jeen recorded it in her own attic with the help of her husband and friends.
She may say “If they don’t like it, they don’t like it” but I think you probably will. Have a listen and get your hey-lo on.
Tourist (Deluxe Edition) comes out June 30.
