Jessamine
don’t stay too long
kranky
Jessamine in pop song shocker!! I’m serious. People change. Thoughts evolve. I suppose even experimentation could become boring after awhile. So Jessamine have stripped down their meanderings and reshaped their noises into concise songs. It’s a gorgeous and aching experiment that exudes auras of dimmed glamour. “It Was Already Thursday” is the closest approximation of the sound of longing that I have heard in quite some time. Songs do not linger, disappearing quickly with no feedback vapour trails. We are left racking our brains over scraps of melody and a moment of phrasing in Dawn Smithson’s evanescent voice. I heard bits of New Order, Mojave 3, and Kendra Smith, maybe even Portishead, but god, don’t take my word for it. All of the bubbling and squeaking and floating bits are still here, just reined in considerably (see “elsewords”). Then something like the psychedelic instrumental (freak out organ baby yeah!!) “burgundy” comes along and wrecks my whole review framework. Still, we are talking classic song structures here. Let it be. This is a different Jessamine, one more fit to chanteuse attire, sounding menacing and inviting in a smoky club at 3 AM. Kranky Records, P.O. Box 578743, Chicago, IL 60657
