Jackson Browne  by Jackson Browne

Jackson Browne's eponymous debut album, released in January 1972, is one of the cornerstones of the Laurel Canyon singer-songwriter scene. Although often mistakenly referred to as Saturate Before Using due to the inscription on the cover, its official title is simply Jackson Browne. The mystery of the title: The cover was designed by Gary Burden to resemble a traditional canvas water bag. The phrase "Saturate Before Using" was supposedly an instruction for the bag, but the public and later the record companies considered it as the album's title, leading to it being printed this way even on the spine of the CD edition (!)

The album moves along folk rock and soft rock paths. The album's sound is characterized by an introspective, "warm" and clear sound. The piano and acoustic guitar dominate, while the other instruments (electric guitar, viola, harmonica) are used discreetly so as not to overshadow the lyrics as Browne's lyrics, despite his young age at the time (only 23 years old), display a rare maturity and are nestled within deeply reflective ballads that balance between youthful curiosity and worldly wisdom. Jackson Browne was recorded in 1971 at Crystal Sound Studios in Hollywood. Browne sang the entire album with a Neumann U87 microphone, with no compression on the vocals, using the studio's natural "echo chamber" for echo sound. The album's production and sound engineering were signed by Richard Sanford Orshoff. Legendary musicians such as David Crosby, Graham Nash, Clarence White, and members of The Section participate in the album.

The album reached No. 53 on the Billboard chart. It went Gold in the U.S. in 1976 and Platinum in 1997, surpassing 1,000,000 in sales.