LETTING HIMSELF 'SHINE' AGAIN

Grammy-winning songwriter Tobias Jesso Jr. releases his sophomore album 10 years after his cult-hit debut

- BY MIKAEL WOOD POP MUSIC CRITIC

IAN SPANIER For The Times TOBIAS JESSO JR., shown at his house in Silver Lake, has written hits for Adele, Harry Styles and Dua Lipa, winning songwriter of the year at the 2023 Grammys.

To get it out of the way: Yes, Tobias Jesso Jr. has heard about gooning.

"Somebody put me up on it and said it was about masturbation?" says the 40-year-old singer and songwriter, which is about half-right: As detailed in an essay in Harper's that went viral last month, to goon a term heretofore associated with Jesso thanks to his cult-fave 2015 album "Goon" means in Gen Z parlance to masturbate at such great lengths that the act leads to a kind of trance state.

"Well, I've never done that," Jesso says. "'Goon' I got from 'The Goonies' it's just a brilliant movie." He laughs. "But I don't care. If it sells more records, sure."

That Jesso has a record to sell at all might take some by surprise. Though "Goon" thoroughly charmed critics and fellow musicians with its early-'70s-balladeer vibe - many said he evoked the glory days of Randy Newman, Harry Nilsson and beard-and-shearling-coat-era Paul McCartney - Jesso didn't cotton to the life of a sort-of-famous performer and almost immediately walked away from his solo career to write songs for other singers instead.

He's thrived in that role, penning hits for the likes of Adele, Niall Horan, Harry Styles and Dua Lipa. In 2023, he was named songwriter of the year at the Grammy Awards; this month he was nominated for that prize for a second time, with the Recording Academy citing his work with Justin Bieber ("Daisies"), Haim ("Relationships") and Olivia Dean ("Man I Need"), among others.

Yet now he's back with an unexpected followup to his debut called "Shine," which came out Friday. Stripped back for the most part to just voice and piano, it's an earnest work of introspection from a guy who knows how to make tenderness feel like strength.