Music Monday #12: Beautiful Soul by Jesse McCartney

'Beautiful Soul' is an album by Jesse McCartney that was released in 2004 but it wasn't until 2007 that I became aware of him or his work.  I was at the tail end of my first year of University at the time and my circle of friends was expanding once more and yet again Music was the tool I used to form bonds with people and explore their interests.  Not for the first time I met a girl at University who had a music collection filled with artists I had never heard of and yet again I dived right in and started to explore.  Even then I didn't pick out Jesse from the list because there was so much to choose from.  It wasn't until a conversation about the singers we had crushes on over the years cropped up and I mentioned having a crush on Aaron Carter in my teenage years that Jesse was mentioned and it went from there.

My American readers have probably heard of Jesse even if they didn't follow his music career they probably know him from 'All My Children' a popular daytime soap in the 90s but for context, both his music career and the soap he acted in were pretty much unknown here in the UK, indeed even today those that have heard of him probably know him for his voice acting as Roxas and Ventus in Kingdom Hearts.  His music career is often overlooked here in the UK, this album for instance peaked at number 53 in the UK charts so his music career didn't get very far here, as for the soap to my knowledge that was never syndicated on UK television.  I've written before about this forgotten history and the fact that "new" and "new to me" are two very different concepts yet they embody much of the same experiences.  There are a wealth of artists that have enjoyed success in the US but are unknown in the UK and vice versa, and a wealth of TV shows and an abundance of content from years gone by that we never got to see, and for the most part even now with the internet there's no real service you can use to explore that content.  Spotify has problems when it comes to popping bubbles and as for streaming services for TV shows, if they aren't current then they are pretty much resigned to history.

This serves once more as a reason why curators are needed, people who can say if you like this then you might like that.  That's how I discovered Jesse and when I explored his music it struck a chord with me because at the time I was crushing pretty hard on yet another guy, an infatuation that ultimately led nowhere but nevertheless the title track 'Beautiful Soul' and another track in particular, 'Because You Live' serve as reminders for me now of how I felt for him.  I even fell for Jesse himself for a while and still hold a flame.

Jesse's music represents a journey down memory lane for me, I don't listen to it that much any more but whenever I want to reminisce and reflect on that time in my life I listen to this album.  I followed Jesse's career for a few years after discovering him, an honourable mention here goes to his 'Departure: Recharged' album in particular to the 'Body Language' track on there which is probably my most played track of his in my music library.  I dropped off a few years later however when his musical styling shifted focus and no longer appealed to me.  Beautiful Soul still holds a place in my heart though and it will remain in my music library even if I don't listen to it that often it holds emotion and memories that still mean a lot to me.