Jacob Tell – Hard To Be Human (2026)
After seeing a matinee of the Ritchie Valens biopic, La Bamba, US-based Jacob Tell purchased his first guitar. Do you think he rocked that guitar with the energy and flair of Valens? Perhaps. What we know is that a love for music was ignited with a passion for guitars. Tell began writing songs in high school and performed with several bands during his school days. Skip ahead, and after 16 years, Tell returned to “what he truly loved”, taking an admirable plunge, resigning from his day job just before the Covid pandemic hit. Focusing on his writing and recording, Tell began honing, polishing, and refining a sound that is his own.
Many people took the Covid years to find themselves, discover new passions, and Jacob Tell seems to be part of that fold. In 2025, he started releasing music on streaming sites, beginning with the singles ‘Shut Down’ and ‘Slips Too Easy’; next came his debut album, The Loved and The Numb, reaching audiences across the USA. This year, he entered 2026 with his sophomore album, Hard To Be Human.
Inspired by the likes of Bob Dylan, Paul Simon, Bruce Springsteen, George Harrison, The Smiths, Paul McCartney and John Lennon, Hard To Be Human is a mishmash of styles and sounds, wrapped in a hard-hitting arrangement and poetic lyricism. Ranging from the blues in ‘Trad Wife’ and ‘So Much Of The Time’, to the classic rock tones in ‘You Know How This Ends’ and brushes of country in ‘Cracks Appearing All Around’, Tell showcases his versatility as an artist.
From the opening track, ‘Hard To Be Human’, Tell introduces us to a characteristic that persists throughout the eleven songs – an off-kilter mixing of harmony and disconnection, rugged airiness and full-bodied heaviness, a separation of instruments and vocals with a united wrapper offering the song with cracks, but in a whole package. It’s as if Tell’s voice dances across the tracks, while his guitars and bass sweetly caress Don Douglas’s drums; however, there is still a bare-bones soundscape where each instrument holds prominence within the overall, unified melody.
For me, this disconnection and almost gritty push of sound make you pay attention to each track. It’s as if Tell is sitting you down to chat about profound issues with a cool-headed approach, yet still giving you the breath-taking “oh, hell” with each word and groove. Why is this so important? In my opinion, it is the ideal expression of Hard To Be Human’s theme: “a poignant picture of resilience, exploring the struggles and anxieties faced by Americans in today’s polarised climate.”
Delving into the realm of Trump’s America, Tell opens the album with its title track, ‘Hard To Be Human’. As if singing through a funnel, his vocals come from one corner atop his hard rock guitars and bass, with Douglas’ drums keeping things steady in the other corner. Following through to ‘Zero Street’, the bass persists like an eerie pulsating of music; then ‘You Know How This Ends’ kicks in with a mellifluous rush of richer music. The thing is, just as the melody has this flow of sound, Tell’s voice continues to seemingly cut across from outer space.
For me, one of the more intriguing tracks is ‘Slips Too Easy’. A sweep of folk music brings a James Taylor-esque tone; however, it is not only in these folk songs where we feel a Taylor vibe. Across Hard To Be Human, Tell showcases the touching, intimate, melancholy but still tender songwriting that we hear from Paul Simon and, once again, James Taylor. It’s old-school and intricate, but also barebones and relevant to a modern-day reality.
So, overall, what are my thoughts on Hard To Be Human? An album that makes you pay attention in a silent way, makes you ponder on the meaning behind the words, and is a perfect soundtrack to one of those movies about a dystopian society where everything is grey and worrying. This is my introduction to Jacob Tell, and I am eager to hear what he has in store.
Find out more about Jacob Tell on his X, Instagram, TikTok, Bandcamp, Soundcloud and Spotify.
