Jeremy Zucker revisits his hometown on ‘Garden State’

Recommended Tracks: “surprise!”, “simple things,” splinter”
Artists You Might Like: Chelsea Cutler, Lauv, Alexander 23

Home means many different things to many different people. For some, it represents where you come from, but for others, it may mean where you may go in the future and who you could become if you let yourself. On his latest album, Jeremy Zucker explores what it means to leave your hometown and see it in a new light. Garden State, at its core, is about reckoning with home, memory and identity — and most importantly, a reflection on growing up in Franklin Lakes, NJ.

A town that shaped him, even though he’s felt disconnected from it, Franklin Lakes is something Zucker can always come back to, with the track “hometown” serving as the first taste of Garden State. The track merges acoustic guitar strums beneath pensive verses and builds towards a breezy hook, as he sings of distance from everything he once knew — from your past, from the people who knew you then and from the person you used to be (“Oh wow, look at you now, a little too good for your old hometown. He’s got it all figured out. How does it feel looking down?”). That includes facing the unraveling of a close relationship on the indie-pop track “i don’t know you” — once grounded in friendship and familiarity and now a place where the person he used to know feels like a stranger.

As one grows older, one often looks back on a past now forgotten. Zucker writes a detailed letter to his younger self on the emotional ballad “surprise!,” with that younger version’s idea being a dream Zucker says he’s living. He sings, “You don’t always need to know / Exactly what the future holds.” As he continues looking back on this past, Zucker remembers the small, ordinary things – town fairs, photo booths, tan lines — on “simple things,” where he realizes how meaningful those “simple things” really were. Despite this new world he’s entered, Zucker sings, “No, he’s never going back to / A New Jersey state of mind,” wishing he appreciated what he had — those “simple things” just a little bit more. Yet, he’s still holding onto someone who feels out of reach on “time zones” as love unravels.

“It’s the most nostalgic tribute to my childhood,” Zucker says of “Simple Things.” “I purposefully ignored the negativity, aimlessness, and not fitting in. I decided to talk about the fun bits and pieces of my memories.”

On “what i almost had,” Zucker captures the ache of that almost, whether it’s the missed changes or the timing that just didn’t work; he paints a detailed image in listeners’ heads about that coming-of-age heartbreak that cuts deep. From crying in the car, spring nerves, track meets and awkward teenage moments, the song is almost childlike in its production as it feels light and gentle, like the butterflies that hit when you least expect them to. Despite getting his heart broken, he still holds onto the pull of someone he loves on “navy blue,” a dreamy, bittersweet track that captures undeniable yearning.

“natural disaster” marks a turning point in the album — kind of the middle point of Garden State — the track is messy, chaotic and sees Zucker uneasy. He’s calling his mom, realizing something’s wrong, and then it kind of hits you: red lights, bikes flipping, lies told at home. He sings, “These things happen, life comes crashing, you’re a natural disaster.” Zucker, who spends much of the time living with the pain, stuck in it almost, learns to live with it here. But despite this idea of being resilient, Zucker is ultimately spiraling on “pretty fucking tight,” as he sings, “I’m really out of my mind.” The song is an epiphany as he feels like he’s just waiting for something that never seems to come.

A major turning point in the album is “letting go,” which feels like an emotional centerpiece on the album. Moving through chapters like childhood innocence, first heartbreak, family change and eventually falling in love as an adult, he sings, “There’s nothing quite like letting go.” At last, Zucker’s “all i want” feels like a resolution. It’s not perfect, but nothing ever is. It’s hopeful and full-hearted and sees Zucker end at his most vulnerable as he ultimately finds the kind of love that makes the past’s pain worth enduring.

In the album’s final moments, Zucker must confront how he feels about whatever emotions are tied to his home. On “splinter,” he looks at how homes, memories and family shape us, singing, “there’s a splinter of you in my heart.” One of the saddest songs on the album, it hits Zucker here that the people he loves, all the moments he shared in this house and this time in his life, are gone, and it’s the changing times that make this song a relatable heartbreak. Title track “garden state,” set against this stark sonic backdrop, sees Zucker reflect on his youth in New Jersey, the friends he grew up with and the tension between staying in one place versus leaving to grow. It’s nostalgic and vulnerable.

It’s an exploration of being young and running around with my friends,” he says. “We never wanted to change. In the song, I created an imaginary situation where it’s like, ‘If one of us is going to leave and turn his back on all of this, who would it be?’ It ends up being me, of course. The farther I got away, there was an inherent sense of guilt. Realizing it wasn’t a mistake to leave gave me peace of mind and erased those feelings of guilt. It made me feel proud of my decision and who I am, and it also made me honor where I’m from.”

By the end of the album, the natural sounds like birds and wind chimes from his home state on the dreamy yet introspective “such great things,” originally by The Postal Service, sees Zucker float away from his hometown while still holding it dear. He grabs his Garden State after all this time apart, revisiting those roots with the perspective of someone who has left, grown, and returned emotionally to re-examine them, leaving him tied to the memory of where he came from.

“When you’re hyper-personal about what you’ve gone through, it unlocks empathy,” he leaves off. “I believe in the power of storytelling. Whether or not you’re from New Jersey, you can hopefully relate to the feeling of growing up and growing out. Some people end up in the same place they grew up in; other people end up far away. However, we all have thoughts about who we are now and who we were then. It’s a universal story.”