On My Way to Absence
| On My Way to Absence | ||||
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| Studio album by Damien Jurado | ||||
| Released | 5 May 2005 | |||
| Length | 41:33 | |||
| Label | Secretly Canadian | |||
| Producer | Eric Fisher | |||
| Damien Jurado chronology | ||||
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| Professional ratings | |
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| Aggregate scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Metacritic | 74/100 |
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic |   |
| Pitchfork | (7.3/10) |
| Stylus | (A–) |
| Uncut |   |
On My Way to Absence is Damien Jurado's sixth full-length album. It was released in 2005 and was Jurado's second release on Secretly Canadian records. The album was produced by his frequent collaborator Eric Fisher. Jurado has referred to the album as "a tribute to jealousy".
In the album's opening track, "White Center", Jurado's barely comprehensible vocal slur tells a tale of small town murder. The instrumentation combines "lush strings", a "quiet acoustic guitar strum and gentle piano".
"Lottery" features backing vocals by Rosie Thomas. The track is "gentle, almost like a lullaby" and is comparable to "Matinee" from Jurado's preceding LP, Where Shall You Take Me?.
"Big Decision" combines "minimal electronics, keyboards, and samples" with "quivering strings" and "melancholic understate[d]" vocals to create one of the most optimistic tracks on the album.
"Lion Tamer" is reminiscent of his 1999 LP Rehearsals for Departure, particularly the tracks "The Tragedy" and "Honey Baby". He sings the "apathetic" vocals with "coarser" and "more forceful" vocals to a "dreamy haze of piano [and] guitar".
The "stripped-down and melancholy" rock tune "Fuel" is the dark confessional of a "merciless small-town killer".
Crooked Fingers lead singer Eric Bachmann provides backing vocals on this "smoldering rock" track that sounds like it belongs on Jason Molina's Songs: Ohia.
Like "Lion Tamer", "Sucker" sounds like the material from Rehearsals for Departure. The folk-rock track is "upbeat" and "poppy".
"I Am the Mountain" is a reworking of the track from his 2004 EP, Just in Time for Something. It is reminiscent of Neil Young and Crazy Horse, a "raw", "stripped-down and melancholy rock" tune with an alt-country feel. The "bombastic" track would fit in on Trials & Errors from Secretly Canadian labelmate Magnolia Electric Co. and breaks up the album's "folkier elements" "with bells and strings, minimal piano and brushed drums".
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