Ours

American alternative rock outfit Ours is the brainchild of New Jersey-bred singer/songwriter Jimmy Gnecco, whose passionate delivery and wild howls joined the ranks of equally emotive vocalists Jeff Buckley, Bono, and Matt Bellamy of Muse. After debuting in the early 2000s with the major-label breakthrough Distorted Lullabies, the group followed that album's success up the charts with sophomore set Precious and the Rick Rubin-produced Mercy. Soon after, the project went underground and sporadically released efforts into the 2010s, including 2013's Ballet the Boxer and 2018's New Age Heroine. In 2021, Gnecco returned with the expansive self-titled comeback, Ours.Born and raised in New Jersey, Gnecco toyed with music and various band configurations after graduating high school, but it wasn't until 1996, when he returned to America after a brief sabbatical, that he decided to pour his complete energy into music. It didn't take him long to attract industry attention; a major-label bidding war quickly ensued, with Gnecco turning down a few deals on the way to ultimately striking a partnership with DreamWorks. The relationship formed slowly -- Gnecco didn't enter the studio for another year -- and the task of recording that elusive debut proved to be daunting. With Steve Lillywhite at the helm, it took Gnecco over three years to complete. The resulting album, 2000's Distorted Lullabies, was met with modest critical acclaim, with the prevailing sentiment suggesting that Gnecco was quite similar to the late Jeff Buckley. Two years later, Ours returned with the lush and beautiful Precious, which was the group's first to crack Billboard's albums chart. From there, Gnecco remained elusive, despite a cult-like following of devoted fans.Half a decade later, a move to American Recordings (and a production slot for head honcho Rick Rubin) produced third full-length Mercy...(Dancing for the Death of an Imaginary Enemy), which was released in 2008. Gnecco quickly followed with the release of a solo acoustic venture, The Heart, in 2010. The next year, he issued the X Edition of the album, which featured re-recordings of the original tracks with a full band.Gnecco returned his focus to Ours three years later with the project's fourth full album, the crowdfunded Ballet the Boxer 1. New Age Heroine II, a sequel of sorts, arrived in 2018 after another extended absence. The Media Age EP followed in late 2020, intended as a bridge between Boxer and Heroine, kicking off a creative burst for Gnecco that yielded multiple efforts. The third installment of a proposed trilogy was set to be titled Spectacular Sight, but it was later released as the self-titled Ours. Issued on May 15, 2021 (the 20th anniversary of the release of Distorted Lullabies), the album was an artistic revival for the band, spanning 17 tracks split into three chapters (The Towering Garden, Azurite, and Spectacular Sight). That same week, Gnecco also issued a pair of EPs: Right Here Right Now and The Bella Fall. Once touring for the album concluded, Gnecco returned to the studio for a surprise that would be revealed in 2024. That year, in addition to joining Humanist as a guest vocalist on their 2024 European tour dates (including stints opening for Jane's Addiction and Depeche Mode), he announced the re-recording of 2018's New Age Heroine, remixed and remastered with a new track sequence starting with "Eternally." The set was released in September, billed as "Ours Starring Jimmy Gnecco."
© Neil Z. Yeung /TiVo