The whole thing starts with the intro “Here and now”which introduces us to the urban atmosphere, full of reflections on life, which runs throughout the entire album. This narrative that guides us throughout the album is something I’ve missed in some recent releases. Jakub Skorupa really managed to do it, for example with songs such as “Accepting reality has consequences”which plays the classic role of a skit, or “I’m folding”where the narrator refers to the previous one “Hello, I’m from Poland”but more on that later.
One of the loudest promoting singles “Notebook Two” were “Grounds”which I consider to be the absolute best song on the entire album. The whole thing is backed by Kuba Dąbrowski with a very subtle guitar and backing vocals, which really works beautifully with Jakub Skorupa’s vocals. At the end of the song, in a kind of outro, we can hear the only guest on the album, a genius David Tyszkowskiwhose sensitivity matches this song like few others.
“Zeszyt Drugi”, although it is a really coherent album, is also very diverse, which is shown, for example, by “Good morning, I’m from Poland”, which contrasts strongly with “Fusy”. As Jakub himself admitted in an interview for Interia, this song is his symptom of patriotism, which, according to him, is something more than just issuing sweet cards. This is perfectly illustrated by the line: “I love this Vistula dawn that mixes me with mud.” This is one of those fluid songs that escape genre frameworks, the imposition of which in the case of Jakub Skorupa is absolutely unjustified.
Another example of a brilliant composition is one of the less popular songs from “Zeszyt Drugi”, i.e “Three dots”. The repeating motif played by the brass players, with clear drums in the background, with a catchy chorus, is something that requires appreciation.
In “Three-Dot”, similarly to v “Winter Twenty-First”you can hear a similar style of describing reality in the lyrics, which can be seen, for example, in Taco Hemingway, and I buy it. And I’m not saying this because of Skorupa’s recurring theme of cryptocurrencies, to which Filip Szcześniak also devoted a lot of space. The way of putting thoughts into words, i.e. songwriting in general, is something that Jakub Skorupa did exceptionally well on this album and for which we should really appreciate “Zeszyt Drugi”. And by adding juggling genres, I assure you that everyone, like me, will find something for themselves here.
Jakub Skorupa, “Zeszyt Drugi”, Universal Music Polska