Jane Remover/Photo: Jane Remover
Behind a curly mop of shoulder-length dark hair, hidden somewhere between four other aliases and side projects, Jane Remover is no enigma (except for her crazed fan base that seems to always desire more from the young artist). Her mystic promotional photo, shot to reveal tantalizing hints of her interiority, taunts the camera and seems to unintentionally stoke the parasocial flames of her followers. And at just twenty-one, JR’s discography is truly that impressive. This spring, she kicks off her twenty-stop “Turn Up or Die” tour, performing in her adopted city of Chicago on April 25 at Lincoln Hall.
Jane’s production style is scattered between shoegaze ballads and a kitchen sink of electronics. With songs resting between a tight ninety seconds and just over nine rolling minutes of sonic voyage, Jane is first and foremost an expert narrator. Using a mix of synths, samples, effects and emotive drums, her stories are more complex than what can come across as brain-dead for-the-journal lyricism; in fact, it’s part of her ability to weave every element together just perfectly, using a small opening into relatability to bring listeners in—and hard—before crushing them with her genius. On “Twice Removed,” the first track of her newest album, “Revengeseekerz,” Jane sings, “Two can play, but two’s a crowd / So there’s two of me, I’m clonin’ out / Two can dance, get the music loud / You a dead man flexin’, show some ass now.” Heavy topics, as she struggles with some combination of identity in her own body and aliases, then gets cheeky and laughs it off. Through the gag of hyperpop, the doubling of symbolism in her use of effects and silly references—her newest album is perhaps the most playful yet.
As she moves away from her more narrative albums that incorporate light downtempo moments and heavy guitar, she refines her craft not in opposition, but in parallel: her Midwestern emo-ish Americana now fully in the sails of her side-project venturing, JR can go ham. “Revengeseekerz” is a warrior’s dance of solid three-to-five-minute tracks that show a sonic consistency with extremely impressive technical elements. The music hunts even as Jane sounds more carefree. It’s as if she’s finally letting go and relying on her intuition. Her stories aren’t as clear because she’s leveled up to convey her intertwined desires and feelings of them. Talent spills from her corpus; she is a lightning rod through which the ghost of her ecstatic past selves, Dltzk and Leroy, haunt her.
JR is at a pivotal point in her career—she is no longer just a feature or remix artist, nor the face of an NTS DJ show, and certainly no longer a supporting act. From her vantage point, she wobbles; her sometimes worrying lyrics and increasingly off-the-wall fans reveal the hidden social burden of stardom—it’s lonely.
Expect insanity in the best way possible on her first headlining tour. If she can survive her birth into newfound fame kicking and screaming, her best is yet to come.
Jane Remover performs a sold-out show at Lincoln Hall, 2424 North Lincoln, on Friday, April 25. Doors at 7pm; show at 8pm. More info at lh-st.com.
