Julia Jacklin finds new shadows beneath the familiar glow of The Gem

Afterwards, you reflect: they looked and sounded pretty much the same. Most of what you talked about you'd touched on before. And yet, something felt different. There was, in them, a subtle but definite energetic shift. The experience is similar while listening to Julia Jacklin’s new album, The Gem. “Brand New”, for example, is built around a guitar-heavy, folk-rock mix that resembles various tracks from 2019’s Crushing. And yet, the tension between what’s being sarcastically communicated and what’s being pensively repressed or self-censored feels darker, stickier, more alarming. If we were sitting at that lunch table over lattes, we might ask: Uh, is everything all right? In any case, this elusive sense of burden or free-floating distress plays a large part in the intriguing air of mystery that surrounds these ten songs. “God Sometimes”, like “Brand New”, is built around a bouncy, guitar-led mix and lush production. The chugging guitars, alternately pushy and draggy, occasionally recall Pre-Pleasure, and the moodier side of Courtney Barnett. Jacklin’s voice is sultry, tinged with sadness, and warbly in all the right places. “The Hardest Thing”, too, works for its contrast between ...