In her fourth studio album, The Gem, Julia Jacklin shows us that you often only need two chords (maybe three max) to write a really excellent song.
The Gem, recorded in Melbourne in a studio that sits above a pub of the same name, is a dreamy collection of heartfelt, indie-folk songs all written by Jacklin. Her voice, characterized by a beautiful, airy vibrato, shines at the forefront of each track, creating powerful builds (like in the final track, “I Wish”), stunning, isolated harmonies (in “The Hardest Thing”), or gentle, stripped-down melodies (in “Angel Vision”).
Despite Jacklin’s claim in the opening track “Brand New” (Can’t afford to have an inner world; got things to do), her inner world does unfold throughout the album, with themes of relationship tension, being the god of your own life, letting your loved ones down, and feeling taken advantage of.
The album is wrought with tension: between quotidian, mundane observations and sweeping philosophical, spiritual musings; between lush sonic builds and minimalist, acoustic tracks; between internal emotional landscapes and external surroundings. If you choose just one song to read the lyrics to as you listen, let it be “If I Had the Hand of God”. Jacklin starts by observing: “Looking at my neighbour eat a peach over the sink,” then jumps to the hypothetical: “If I had the hand of God, would the God whose hand I have know not to leave you alone when you say you’re feeling sad?” In the first half, she notes “Mary sings and I feel everything”, only to end with “Mary sings and I feel nothing”.
In “Real Life”, upbeat backing percussion constrasts with a dreamy Wurlitzer that creates the perfect scenario for Jacklin to recount a dream about watering someone’s plants, only to conclude that all the plants had died. In “Walk On Me”, a shoegazey, reverb-heavy guitar creates a fuzzy haze that juxtaposes Jacklin’s wailing vocals which could exist in the universe of Angel Olsen. We feel her pain throughout the build, and especially in the final lines: When the band begins to play/ I say, “I know this song”/ You say, “Everybody knows this one”/ So why am I the only person singing along?
Though the album has no skips, I think the final track is the strongest. The Maes, Melbourne-based sisters Elsie and Maggie Rigby, lend their backing vocals to create beautiful harmonies that allow some of Jacklin’s most impactful lyrics to shine through:
Oh, I grew/ Into a new shape/ Something new/ A foreign landscape/ With no trees, not a drop of rain/ Would not believe things could grow from pain.
As the album winds down, we are left with the image of “a baby bird rais[ing] its head”, a final reminder that the tension and turmoil resolve, and that we’re going to be okay.
The Gem is out now via 4AD Records.
