Rating: 
Jessica Pratt first hit the scene back in 2012 with her debut self-titled album that transfixed audiences with its folksy creations. Now she’s back with a soft sophomore effort, On Your Own Love Again, which hopes to double up on the success of the first album in the apparent age of the singer/songwriter.
While Jessica Pratt’s music is certainly folk, it goes deeper than this blanket genre term suggest. Pratt’s overall sound is a mix of cascading acoustic guitar that serves as both the melody and the rhythm accompanied by her whimsically airy vocals. These vocals are the main attraction, though, and through them she spins intricate tales and crafts wonderful imagery that your mind will linger on. The combination of her voice and the intricate plucking of acoustic guitar are vastly more complex than they might seem and Pratt weaves them together with ease and allure. The sound here is simple, yet elegantly crafted, ornate, yet easy.
The highlights of this album come all over—by no means is this a one sided collection of songs, and I feel that those that resonate with you the strongest depends on your personal taste, but those that struck me as the most enticing come from the second half of the album. I was drawn strongly to “Jacquelyn In the Background,” on which Pratt’s vocals are impossibly breathy and light and yet still weighty in their content. The twisting and turning acoustic guitar falls on itself, creating a constant state of motion over which the vocals are able to glide. At the end of this track, the production adds a twist to it, distorting the vocals and guitar as if the record is playing on the wrong setting, evoking a level of self-awareness in an unexpected twist. Another song that has really pulled me in is “Back, Baby,” which reminds me a bit of old Destroyer records—the melancholy guitar that cuts through the tongue-twisting vocals hits hard.
I enjoy the songs on On Your Own Love Again, but I wasn’t too floored by the overall construction of the album; it’s gentle and delicate all the way through. Whereas Pratt’s contemporaries seem to burst through with power guitar or electronic components, she holds firmly to the eclectic nature of her folk tunes, which leaves me a little longing for more. She’s captured my attention with the enticing and spell-bounding quality of the music, but doesn’t expound beyond this.
I’ve been fortunate with this site, and such fortunes continue with some friends reaching out to have me curate an hour of music featuring SXSW Official Austin acts that I wanted to rest of the world to know about. It also features my horrendous voice, though only for like 30 seconds total. I kind of went all over the map, trying to be as diverse as possible within the realm of my own tastes. The little show will run three times today on SXSWFM (9 AM, 3 PM, 9 PM), which is a great place to get to know some of the artists, not just the Austin ones. Here’s the artists I chose to include: Flesh Lights, Sour Notes, Jess Williamson, Roger Sellers, Mirror Travel, Shivery Shakes, Grape St, Ramesh, A Sinclair, Love Inks, Hundred Visions, Abram Shook, Ssleeperhold, The Zoltars, Warm Soda and The Eastern Sea. Just doing what I can to give a little love to our friends. Special thanks to Brett and Rory for this rad opportunity.
