release date: Feb. 19, 2021
format: digital (7 x File, FLAC)
[album rate: 4 / 5] [3,86]
producer: Josh Kaufmann, Cassandra Jenkins
label: Ba Da Bing! - nationality: USA
Track highlights: 1. "Michelangelo" - 2. "New Bikini" - 3. "Hard Drive" (4 / 5) (live on KEXP) - 4. "Crosshairs" - 5. "Ambiguous Norway" - 6. "Hailey"
2nd full-length album by Cassandra Jenkins follows 4 years after her fine debut Play Till You Win (Apr. 2017) and it's a relatively short affair with seven tracks and a full-length running time just above the half hour making it 10 mins shorter than the debut. So what has she been up to in all these years except from touring, releasing two live albums and getting used to a new everyday life? You may ask [answering it all by yourself that is]. Yes, perhaps the positive reception of a first album out plays a part in the relative long hiatus in between releases, 'cause how do you deal with all the positive response from music critics and music fans? - Anyhow, it does remain an uncertain detail because four years is a long time when trying to get your name out.
Now, the album is a bolder step into sophisticated art pop built on layers and inspiration from jazz and some electronica, which leaves an impression of a new approach. At least it differs from her first two releases: the stripped-down and simplistic folk-oriented and self-titled ep debut from 2013 and her 2017 full-length both appearing more closely related with one another, and then this one pointing forward to her so far finest album release: My Light, My Destroyer (Jul. 2024), which now echoes alt. folk to some extent but generally more so art pop fused with ambient electronica and the use of field recordings.
The album here contains my first ever encounter with the music by Jenkins, the phenomenal "Hard Drive", which had me thinking of an artist related to Laurie Anderson, someone perfectly capable of setting a tone, telling a story, and have music and songwriting go hand in hand in a highly original way by combining something literally with the abstract and double meanings. And "Hard Drive" is both something physical referring to storage of data on a computer and then steering a car can be a 'hard drive'. Luckily, the album comes with more than just one fine song, although, that particular one still stands as one of her finest.
Recommended.