Let surprising Australian grow on you
Julia Jacklin shows usual wit and musical range in release, leaving us anticipating more
What’s the deal? Archaic though the idea might seem, a CD copy of Julia Jacklin’s debut LP, Don’t Let the Kids Win, sent this way by a friend at the Australian singer/ songwriter’s Canadian label around this time last year has never been more than arm’s length from a stereo ’round Your New Favourite Thing’s place since.
It’s just that kind of record, a creeper that doesn’t immediately announce itself as a keeper, yet a record that you’re nevertheless compelled to pull out again and again. This is where the value of a having a physical product at hand comes into play — when it’s sitting there in front of you because you always feel like there’s more to get from it. Because there’s always more to get from it.
Jacklin covered a lot of bases on Don’t Let the Kids Win, from winsome, warbly Americana in the Dolly Parton vein to Joni Mitchell-via-Feist songbird folk to Angel Olsenesque meta-girl-group pop to, on the wicked single “Coming of Age,” her own version of that most Australian species of sardonic jangle-rock lately popularized by peers like Courtney Barnett and Jen Cloher. On her justreleased Polyvinyl 7-inch, “Eastwick/Cold Caller,” however, Jacklin runs with the wit and the musical range she’s casually flaunted in the past to such an impressive degree over just two tracks and nine minutes that one is left veritably salivating for what’s to come on the next full-length. The vision seems destined to line up with the voice.
Sum up what you do in a few simple sentences. “At the moment I play electric guitar in a band with my three friends,” Jacklin says. “We’re currently touring my record, Don’t Let The Kids Win. I spend my free days trying and failing to write something as beautiful as Leonard Cohen’s ‘Suzanne.’ I’m from the Blue Mountains in Australia, which is about an hour from Sydney. I write songs for my friends and family, an easier way to express my feelings than in person. If that then means something to a stranger, that is a beautiful thing. I think if you go in expecting people to take something specific from your music you’ll be disappointed. Always better to be surprised.”
What’s a song I need to hear right now? “Eastwick.” “It might make for good TV/The grieving process, for all to see/But I don’t want my father’s ashes/Scattered over strangers’ couches.” Starts there, gets deeper.
Along-fused, literate epic. Jacklin is arriving.
Where can I see her play? At the Drake Underground on Wednesday, with Faye Webster.