Jessie Jones
Jessie Jones
Release Date: Jul 24, 2015
Genre(s): Pop/Rock, Alternative/Indie Rock, Garage Punk, Neo-Psychedelia
Record label: Burger Records
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Album Review: Jessie Jones by Jessie Jones
Very Good, Based on 4 Critics
Based on rating 8/10
Jessie Jones' debut solo record is a marked change from her work with psych-punk band Feeding People. Where that band focused on darker images and sounds, Jessie Jones has a bigger contrast between songs, from bright and pop-fuelled jams to quieter psych-influenced numbers. Right out of the gate, Jones hooks listeners with the über-catchy "Sugar Coated," whose jangly, acoustic-driven verse gives way to a full-on pop anthem, as Jones demands that we "Kiss the ground that I walk on.
Based on rating 7/10
Let's just get it out of the way -- Jessie Jones is a hippie. She fit like a charm with the moody updated psychedelia of the band Feeding People, where as lead vocalist she seemed like a breezier version of Janis Joplin or Grace Slick when in full flight. And after that band broke up, Jones gave up her possessions and went thumb tripping through rural California before deciding to take up singing again after being persuaded by a busload of kids (or at least that's her story), which sure sounds like a crunchy granola response to a life crisis.
Based on rating 6.9/10
On her debut LP, California singer-songwriter Jessie Jones advises her listeners "And all the mystery is over a fear that by letting/ Go of love it'll feel like an ending/ Give it away/ It'll come back when you're ready." This sanguine, if-you-love-something-let-it-go philosophy is in line with her career. She's traded in leading the charge for garage-rock quintet Feeding People to actualize her visions of radiant pop grandeur. It's a smooth transition for Jones, whose versatility as a vocalist alone is enough to warrant her place in the spotlight.
Opinion: Excellent
Jessie Jones’s first solo album shuffles through a pile of projected musical identities: It’s pop-folk-garage-meditation-art-song or something like that, sometimes all together in four-minute blocks. Ms. Jones was once the young singer in Feeding People, a semi-psychedelic band from Orange County, Calif., that broke up a couple of years ago; then and still, her voice has a foghorn mode and a playful, singsongy one.
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