“I suppose if a man has something once, always something of it remains,” Ernest Hemingway said in his 1940 novel For Whom The Bell Tolls. For multi-instrumentalist, producer and singer/songwriter Jonathan Rado, what remains are memories of his close friends Richard Swift and Danny Lacy, both of whom passed away a few years ago—sparking Rado’s journey through grief immortalized in his second solo album For Who The Bell Tolls For.
A California native and self-taught Renaissance man of modern music, Rado found a mentor in Swift when he was signed to the same record label after delivering his and Sam France’s Foxygen EP Take the Kids Off Broadway to Swift. Rado and France began their indie rock duo in 2005 in high school and, finally, broke through when Swift “discovered them” in 2012. What followed was a masquerade of theatrics, constant break-up rumors, on-stage antics and some pretty damn good music.
However, even from the beginning of Rado’s time with Foxygen, he was looking to a future without being tethered to the revivalist rock label the duo was cursed with. With all his work outside the group, Rado knew that Foxygen had an expiration date—which explains his previous eagerness to explore producing and solo work in the same year they blew up. His first solo album, Law and Order, came out a decade ago and captured the timid beginnings of a musician finding his individual voice and his love for unfiltered rock.
Jonathan Rado’s passion for raw analog sound got lost in the sleek production of Foxygen’s first record. There were hints of live performance grit sprinkled throughout We Are the 21st Century Ambassadors of Peace & Magic, but Law and Order was where Rado could truly shed the studio polish and make all the noise he wanted. Foxygen’s inevitable breakup happened in 2019, and the duo went their separate ways—allowing Rado to pursue producing exclusively. His detest of modern technology was helpful beyond his passion for reviving analog recording, and his unique producing perspective made him the faceless sound of indie rock—drawing the likes of Weyes Blood, The Lemon Twigs and The Killers to his old-style production.
After years of silently grieving and focusing on supporting other musicians, Rado brings his voice—and the voices of his dearly departed friends—to For Who the Bell Tolls For. Rado wasn’t planning on turning his musical catharsis into a full album—which is evident in the vast range of sonic variation from song to song—yet he captured the essence of his two beloved friends through comedy, beauty and their love of art. The intention behind For Who The Bell Tolls For was an exploration of Rado’s losses and, rather than create a sappy tribute album, he wanted to bring his friends back to life in a way they would have loved.
The album name itself, being slightly off from the famous Hemingway novel, is a sly joke—or a clever way to avoid a lawsuit—from Jonathan Rado that hints at the lighter tone of this love letter to his friends. Swift had always viewed the heavier moments in life with a levity that For Who The Bell Tolls For seeks to memorialize. This seven-song album flips from Rado’s interpretations of glam rock to bouncy rhythms with the youthful vigor of a slinky tumbling down the stairs. He’s crafted a heartfelt yet goofy musical landscape that might be an effort to hide his pain but, more accurately, is something Swift is likely smiling down on. Lyrically, however, Rado doesn’t pull any punches and expresses the complicated grief process from guilt to anger to sorrow.
The title track is an anthemic open letter to Swift that surrounds Rado’s complex feelings towards his mentor’s death—layered with trumpets, keys and drums. The piano melody invokes the vibrancy of Elton John while adding Rado’s productional flair to create a larger-than-life sound. “When you reach the deepest depths / And you take your final steps / You can finally get some rest / Under the ocean,” he sings, hoping for a peaceful afterlife for the acclaimed producer. Yet some of Rado’s remorse creeps in with the line “I was just too blind to see that terrible disease,” he sings as a confession to Swift, who dealt with alcoholism throughout his life.
For an album that unabashedly dedicates every song to Rado’s departed friends, the second track, “Don’t Wait Too Long,” upon first listen, feels out of place—an ‘80s-inspired synth rock song to a partner about a relationship that is a victim of time. Yet, time is exactly what he ran out of with Swift and Lacy. “You said you want to see me in another life / How come you don’t want to see me tonight?” he sings in a useless plea for them to stay with him longer.
The middle of the album contains the two most direct tracks about Swift and Lacy. “Easier” pulls from ‘60s pop influences with a bouncy organ melody that arrives as a direct and explicit homage to the former. Rado’s vocals shine here, as he airily sings, “Woke up from a dream, and you were gone forever / Never knew I’d lose a national treasure / I only wanna walk / I only wanna talk like you”—a clear dedication to losing his idol. The vaudevillian tempo of “Easier” even pulls directly from Swift’s catalog in Rado’s own therapeutic act of recreation. “Blue Moon” centers on Lacy and is a morose recount of his death hidden under a playful beat. The track leans more rock than pop, with heavy guitar fuzz and stinging organ injections where Rado sings: “You vanished behind the seas.” While this is a literal reference to how Lacy died, the sea presents a dual meaning of life and destruction in an album celebrating two people’s lives after death—and is another Hemingwayism, too.
In a Spotify playlist on Jonathan Rado’s page titled “For Who The Bell Tolls For Inspo,” there is a variety of Swift songs sprinkled amongst cuts from Brian Eno, David Bowie, Prince and Kanye West. Experimentation is most evident with “Farther Away” and “Walk Away,” two tracks with vastly different genre references—almost as if Rado is cheekily showing off his range to his heroes post-mortem, as if to say, “Look at me now.” The former is a jagged uptempo rock number with clear Bowie and Prince influences with its plunging guitar riffs and choppy rhythms combined with space-age effects, while “Walk Away” follows up with a soft jazz rhythm complete with a gorgeous sax undertone and heavenly hum that can be placed on any Eno album easily.
“Yer Funeral” closes out the album in a wordless eulogy that begins as a simple organ ballad and builds into a grand symphony of memory resurrected through a display of Rado’s multi-instrumental talents. Unsurprisingly, the most melancholic track references Swift writing “Yer Mom” on the side of a barn in a yard sale painting. A silly joke between friends turned into a moving ballad is exactly what Rado hoped to accomplish by bringing his unique perspective to the concept of a classic tribute album.
Although he writes some incredibly thoughtful lyrics throughout the album, “Yer Funeral” is the most beautifully painful arrangement on For Who The Bell Tolls For altogether. After all, Jonathan Rado’s strength has always been how he expresses himself through his instruments; letting them speak for themselves on the languid seven-minute song feels like a fitting final goodbye to his loved ones. Hemingway also said: “Everything you have is to give,” and Rado gave his friends’ souls one last chance to be a piece of his art from beyond.
