Singer and songwriter
Julia Jacklin's second full-length,
Crushing (2019), was a devastatingly raw and nuanced breakup album that broke her into the Top Ten in her native Australia. For the follow-up, she entered the studio with her third different producer in as many albums,
Marcus Paquin (
the Weather Station,
the National), who helped open up her sound with assistance from a backing band that includes members of
the Weather Station and, in a few cases, an orchestra featuring string arrangements by
Owen Pallett. Another change-up on the resulting
PRE PLEASURE, a record that seems to dwell in relationship(s) limbo, is that
Jacklin wrote much of it on a Roland keyboard with built-in band tracks instead of on guitar. In the end, these differences, while notable, are somewhat subtle, as the songs still sound distinctively and intimately hers. The track list's sequencing loads the front end with midtempo soft rockers, including opener "Lydia Wears a Cross" ("I'd be a believer/If I thought we had a chance"), which employs some of those canned drums, at least to start. Songs like "Love, Try Not to Let Go" and the elegant "Ignore Tenderness" ("I've been thinking back/To when things went offtrack") continue to dig into underlying emotions and motivations while introducing minimal strings. The distortion-fueled, uptempo "I Was a Neon" then leads into the heart of
PRE PLEASURE, the stark and vulnerable "Too in Love to Die," a
Jacklin all-timer with only organ, acoustic guitar, and ghostly voice accompaniment, which is paired with the spare folk entry "Less of a Stranger." While the mood lifts for the remaining tracks,
PRE PLEASURE never stops being affecting, with songs such as "Moviegoer," a slinky, evocative narrative about films ("Someone thin is smoking/With a look all-knowing"), their fans, and filmmakers ("40 million dollars/Still nobody loves you") that incorporates breathy, atmospheric woodwinds. Poignant closer "End of a Friendship" brings together expansive strings, a relaxed rhythm section, shimmery guitar delay, a tender, lyrical melody, and eventual squealing feedback before ending on the opener's mechanical drums. Although
Crushing is a hard act to follow,
Jacklin pulls it off gracefully here, with an album whose dramatic arc and songs hold their own. ~ Marcy Donelson
