Jai Uttal

"I feel like this album is about opening up to love—finally," Jai Uttal says. "That involved letting go of a huge part of me that said 'I don't deserve love,' or on really bad days, 'love doesn’t exist.' For me, it's taken big catharses to change those deep internal patterns. I've immersed myself in a great number of spiritual practices, but truly embracing human life...that's what brought me through the times of terrible darkness."

Thunder Love is, in many ways, a sonic approximation of darkness giving way to dawn. But in its depiction of the first rays of a new rising sun, there's an acknowledgment of the shadows that came before, shadows that Uttal addresses with bold directness on songs like "Bolo Ram (Let the Spirits Sing)," a multi-layered, densely-percussive piece that ranks with his most personal outpourings.

That song finds Uttal "looking...for some evidence that there's still a reason to be alive," proof that's ultimately revealed in the most positive way. A similar dichotomy works its way through "Hanuman's Heart," a bracing electric blues cleaved by Jai's piercing electric guitar. On both songs—as well as several of the disc's other offerings—he dovetails smoothly from narrative to chant, from English to Sanskrit, making for a fascinating sonic and emotive blend.

"The songs tend to have verses that describe the human condition and Sanskrit mantras as choruses. These prayers are so entwined with my inner condition, my daily life, that they have to go together with the English lyrics," he explains. "The mantras are not necessarily representative of linear thoughts, but they connect us to a greater thought—at times, I've felt they were the only thing keeping me alive."