By Mia Shea
Correspondent
American singer Samuel Holden Jaffe’s third record under the name “Del Water Gap” was released on Nov. 7. The 12-track record is titled “Chasing The Chimera.”
“This is where I’ve been the last year and it’s been healing my cynical heart, and I hope you’ll find a place for these songs,” Jaffe shared with Rolling Stone Magazine.
The record opens with the song “Marigolds” which was originally released as a single in September of this year.
Jaffe shared with Rolling Stone Magazine that the song “Marigolds” is “about regret and apology as an obsessional mantra.”
He also shared that he “wrote this right after the LA fires, a night I had with someone I was very close with, hiding out together. We got stoned and made dinner and started talking about the absurdity of getting older and you could see the hills burning in the distance from doorway off the kitchen, the dissonance between the world inside and the chaos out there. Nostalgic hangover, everything feels too late and too early all at once.”
As the indie record progresses the same genre and themes remain stagnant. Apple Music shared in the album description that this album is “a mature evolution of Jaffe’s alt-pop sound, sounding a little older and a lot wiser while still exploring the thorny matters of the heart that he’s become known for.”
Now in his early thirties, Jaffe as a musician has definitely matured to create a lyrically advanced album that showcases how he has grown as an artist since his other two studio albums. His self-titled album was released in 2021 and “I Miss You Already + I Haven’t Left Yet” in 2023.
In addition to “Marigolds,” the other lead single and third track on this record is titled “How To Live” and was released in July of this year as well, giving listeners a glimpse into the thematic elements that this record contains.
In October, prior to the release of the album, Jaffe announced a world tour for “Chasing The Chimera” in 2026 via an Instagram post.
The album closes with the song “Eagle In My Nest” leaves the listener with a calm energy as he recounts overcoming hardship. In the main chorus, he sings “It's so hard being alive / With no one by your side / It's such a shame we live and die / But everything will be alright.”
Although it first appears to be a rather depressing and hopeless song, Jaffe leaves the listener with the following lyrics “In the end, oh, in the end / I know I'll be alright / In the end, oh, in the end / I know I'll be alright / In the end.”
These last lyrics encompass the album’s main themes of chaos and self discovery while also reminding the listener that everything will be alright.
“Chasing The Chimera” is available for streaming on all platforms.
