Mistletone

Her self-titled 2012 debut (released in Australia by Mistletone in 2013) has been much-murmured about in the time between yesterday and today. Radio National praised the “warm, intimate folk numbers that escape the tyranny of history”, and Triple R and 2SER named it Album of the Week. People respond to the austere, pristine clarity of the performances, the gentle strength, marvel at how much comes from so little: just a voice and a guitar or two! They speculate on just who is the personality behind this Jessica Pratt? It is hard not to respond to the sound of her music, to not want more right away. Now, two years on, Jessica has signed to Drag City with a new album, On Your Own Love Again, set for release on January 27.

On Your Own Love Again is the first Jessica Pratt album constructed specifically to be an album. Touched lightly with additional instrumental and vocal parts, its songs ripple beneath the surface with lyrical details morphing almost subliminally from personal to fantasy. When Jessica’s playful nature bubbles up, she sends her voice traveling into strange places to see what it finds there. The music provides subtle hallucinatory nuances, giving the album’s inherent romance a greater heft.

Perhaps most significantly, On Your Own Love Again was recorded at home – at places in LA and San Francisco, over the past two years. This process sands the surface of her more active multi-tracking approach, allowing for a delicate and singular sound. With On Your Own Love Again, Jessica is fully alive in a space all her own; with isolation in the breeze, the sound resonant in the natural light and a gauze of clouds in the sky, under which she can relax, unwind and let herself be.