Nashville’s Fields of Jake released “All The Rest” on December 5th, an 8-track project recorded across two sessions between 2022 and 2024. Jake Fields got into music after buying a $70 guitar from a thrift shop instead of pursuing professional baseball, which turned into gigs at Whisky a Go Go, Hotel Cafe, and The Troubadour in LA. He’s released two EPs before this, Someday You’ll Be Mine and No One Wants To See The Grand Canyon Alone, building toward this debut album.
The record was mostly tracked at Lucy’s Meat Market in Los Angeles with producer Jim McGorman, who’s worked with Goo Goo Dolls and Sabrina Carpenter. McGorman handled keys and synth, with David Levita on guitar, Jon Button on bass, Steve Fekete on guitar, and Marc Slutsky on drums. Fields of Jake pulls from Jackson Browne and Paul Simon while landing somewhere between The Kinks and Dawes. The album runs just under 35 minutes and covers love, loss, familial ties, and wanderlust over a soft-rock foundation.
The album starts with “Something To Look Forward To”, and it sets the sunny vibes in place. I couldn’t help but smile as I listened to it on my morning walk. Jake Fields’ voice has such warmth and delivers the lyrics with a yearning for better days and something to look forward to. It’s a genuinely heartfelt expression, and it works on both the melodic and lyrical levels.
What follows is “Win the Game”, and it’s basically the other end of Jake’s style. A wistful ballad with gorgeous chord changes and an incredibly intimate vocal performance. But we don’t stay there for long as “Sprinter Van” picks the energy back up with a nice straightforward pop backbeat and a dreamy prechorus section. The songwriting on display here is exceptional for someone early in their musical career.
That becomes even clearer with “Single Forever”; it’s simultaneously the catchiest song on the album and has surprising depth about relationships and Jake’s personal experience. The reason why it’s catchy is because of Jake’s clever use of a melodic motif being played on the guitar and sung at various points in the song; a technique used by everyone from The Beatles to Taylor Swift.
The next two songs on the record take us into a more relaxed ambient feel temporarily away from the upfront pop sound of the previous songs. “If Only It Was Up To Me” is wishful thinking in a song. Thematically, I can summarise it to “If only I had that power, then we would never be alone”. It’s a powerful story, and the ambience creates the perfect atmosphere for it. Especially that guitar solo doing gnarly distorted unison bends with lots of reverb to serve as the subconscious expression of those wishes.
“Too Many Steps To Heaven” is my personal favourite song on the album. How the story unfolds in the verses and how it’s paced musically, melodically, and rhythmically is simply perfect. I wouldn’t change a thing about it. The musical canvas here is so appropriate for the lyrical content; it fits like a glove. This is a timeless song. In contrast to that, a more time-constrained song, “Nowhere, California”, is about personal experiences, broken dreams in a very modern setting, but stylistically it plays like a classic folk song.
Finally, the album ends with its title track. A song about reminiscence, goodbyes, and most of all love. Jake Fields was definitely saving the best for last. This song is similar to other ambient songs on the album, with melodic guitar lines breaking up the lyrical sections and a strong focus on melody to tell his story. I think that as Jake’s sound evolves, he will lean more towards this style as he feels more natural in this style.
Fields of Jake has been praised by Live Nation’s Ones to Watch, Atwood Magazine, and a handful of other publications since 2020. For a debut album, All The Rest shows range without losing focus. The production from McGorman keeps everything cohesive, even as the songs shift between upbeat pop-rock and more subdued ballads. Fields’ background in live performance comes through in how the songs are structured. They feel like they were written to connect with an audience, not just fill out a tracklist. Based on what’s here, he’s got room to grow, and that’s a good thing.
