In the words of Jack Kerouac, “Tristessa is high, beautiful as ever…” This haunting album tells the tale of that opiate-addicted harlot. Esperanza: Songs from Jack Kerouac’s Tristessa will pry at the core of your emotions. Artists including Wintersleep, Hey Rosetta!, and Matt Costa inject their impressions with melodic doses of folk, Americana, and indie rock. Sometimes it takes tragedy to unveil splendour; the horror of the lyrical narrative is interlaced with the ever-present idea of Esperanza (the Spanish word for hope) and will keep you engaged for the entire album. The curtains open with a reading of the first page of Kerouac’s novel and closes with a reading of the last — creating a woven relationship between the literature and the music. So, spend the night with Tristessa and allow the music to become your morphine as you fall in love with that little spoon bubbling with tangible hope.
