From an American Idol Semifinalist to a Pioneering Indie Star: Briston Maroney’s “Jimmy”
Album Review ★ Kenzie Gay ★ @kenzwrites ★ 800 Words
2025’s concert season is officially upon us after the dead months of winter and even though minimal tours are actually stopping in my city, I am still extremely excited just to see how these performances pan out for others. One of the tours I am most pumped about is the upcoming “Long Hair, Long Life” tour featuring co-headliners Peach Pit and Briston Maroney. The tour kicks off at the end of this month in Philadelphia and to hit the ground running (with a bang at that), Briston Maroney has released his third full length album titled Jimmy.
(left) Briston Maroney via Tyler Krippaehne (right) Peach Pit via Lester Lyons-Hookham
Jimmy opens up with its title track, a brief intro of lo-fi style instrumentals layered with Maroney speaking rather than singing. Bringing a distorted Jack Stauber vibe to things, much of his vocals are difficult to understand but the main gist of things is reflection. Reflection on life, humankind, and how conflicting and anxiety-inducing it can all be. “We’re a beautiful species I would change a lot about” is one of the more emphasized mantras within Jimmy (Intro) and it is reminiscent of themes that carry out as the album progresses.
Further down the tracklist, listeners meet Better Than You, which was a single before the eventual full album. Picking up where the previous song, Real Good Swimmer, ended on, Better Than You showcases elements of conflict, specifically the conflict of wanting to be a bigger person and wanting to unleash with anger and emotion on someone because of a wrongdoing.
The chorus states “I don’t wanna be the best just better than you. Fuck, who was I kidding? Tried to be the bigger boy, a little bigger than you but the shoe ain’t fitting” which outlines this intensely envious motif of inner hostility.
Another song worth noting on this album is Human but more specifically, Human and its following song The View since the two meld into one another much like several of the other tracks. Human is short but it comes in with a heavy, action packed punch as Maroney airs his grievances. He does so with enough angst to last a lifetime, which fuels the song’s fire. “How could you be human but hurt me like you weren’t?” He asks, “How dare you be human and love me like I wasn’t?” This cadence carries on into The View, highlighting a newly addicting riff and a ferociousness that I’ve only seen in metal music before: definitely not indie rock such as this. Blending styles found in the music of Muse and Cage the Elephant, the song is angry but well intended, revolving around lyrical meanings that highlight the importance of pride and surrounding yourself with good people who will lift you up rather than tear you down.
Furthermore, a piece on the album that confused me at first but seemed to click after a third or fourth listen is track 11, Sunsetter. One of the more underrated aspects of Jimmy, Sunsetter’s lyrics can be puzzling at first since it’s up to listener interpretation. “I don’t wanna live or die so don’t call me in the morning. Shut my mouth and close my eyes, take this as a warning. I can not explain it to anyone but me” he sings. As I said, this was a little difficult to decipher and I thought for awhile that maybe Maroney really is right: he can’t explain it to anyone but himself.
Something eventually clicked, however, and even if it’s my own delusion, at least I can resonate with the song on a deeper level now. I took Sunsetter for a piece about how tiring it is to be a human, especially one who deals with mental illness or burnout (which often comes hand in hand). Those niche feelings of not wanting to live but not wanting to die, the idea that nobody else understands. It all felt eerily familiar, wrapped in a powerfully sonic approach. My favorite line by far within this one is “I don’t wanna be here anymore but I don’t seem to have a choice so I might stop fucking complaining about it” because of how often I repeat that to myself on a weekly basis.
Ringing similar to his 2021 debut full-length album Sunflower, Briston Maroney’s new album Jimmy is incohesive and hectic but it works. Jumping from silky soft folk numbers to explosive hitters, Jimmy is a work with fantastic symbolism and messages involving love, friendship, reflection, angst, self esteem, and growing up. After this release, fans old and new can catch Briston on tour in cities such as Chicago, San Diego, Boston, and several more as early as May 20th. If you’re unable to catch a show such as myself, this new album is always there to help listeners cope with potential FOMO. Peach Pit also has a recent record out, which you can find below.
