Bailiff, Jessica / Feels Like Home
Album: Feels Like Home   Collection:General
Artist:Bailiff, Jessica   Added:Feb 2007
Label:Kranky  

A-File Activity
Add Date: 2007-04-15 Pull Date: 2007-06-17
Week Ending: Jun 17 Jun 10 Jun 3 May 27 May 20 May 13 Apr 29 Apr 22
Airplays: 1 1 2 1 5 3 1 5

Recent Airplay
1. Jun 15, 2007: Memory Select -- Jeff Arnal interview
If We Could
4. Jun 01, 2007: Rorschach's Dance
Spiral Dream
2. Jun 04, 2007: Kid For Today
If We Could
5. May 25, 2007: Something about music
What's Inside Your Mind?
3. Jun 02, 2007: Bloodstains Across Atherton - Super Sized Extended Version
If We Could
6. May 19, 2007: Bloodstains Across Atherton - Still Pained
If We Could

Album Review
Joanna S.
Reviewed 2007-04-06
BAILIFF, JESSICA – “FEELS LIKE HOME”
(kranky)

beautiful, intimate, quiet female vocals over sparse acoustic guitars, piano and percussion. slow, moody songs with a gentle, haunting effect. lyrics are mostly simple and softly, breathily sung, sometimes building up with a quiet-then-loud crescendo. as a whole album, the tracks flow from each other, and this works well for creating a certain chill mood, but individual tracks also promise to fit well with indie rock, folk, singer/songwriter, even possibly shoegaze or more ambient/quiet sets. jessica bailiff, working out of toledo, has collaborated with the acts clear horizon, eau claire, and northern song dynasty. she has worked with low’s alan sparhawk (he was an early fan of her work). someone described her music as having the effect of a “powerful whisper.”
recommended tracks starred, = 1, 6 and 7 together, 8, 10!, 11.
FCC clean. - joanna s.


*1. (2:26) fades in with piano and abruptly cuts after 0:40 to layered chanted/sung melodies and simple lyrics: “what’s inside your mind?”
2. (4:27) guitar-based melody, background strings and steady vocals with pretty tambourine and guitar interludes. fake ending around -0:45.
3. (2:35) emphasis on the layers of fem. vocals over simple guitar, followed by light psych-distortion
4. (2:51) soprano fem. vox! over acoustic guitar, a kind of plaintive song, slow
5. (1:58) tinkling piano notes and bare violin with a chorus of female vocals. false end and pause at about -0:45 before echoing harpsichord-esque notes
*6. (2:18) interesting echo-y (distorted?) piano and synthesized dreamy fuzzed guitars, only the barest loops of lyrics (sound like they might be in russian?), creative non-rhythm, continues into next track →
*7. (2:34) lyrics continue from previous track, almost medieval feel with piano, background echoes and female chorus, tambourine, dreamy
*8. (2:11) more traditional pop song structure with forceful (for her) vocals about being hurt by a lover
9. (4:18) fade in, slower vox matching the harmony of sad guitar, gloomy lyrics, ends closer to -0:20
**10. (2:45) distortion fade in and breathy chant/singing, echo guitar soaring as background, sonic experimentation for good!, mostly waves of sound
*11. (2:48) acoustic guitar and soprano vox., with guitar fuzz echoes in background, fades out around -0:15

Track Listing
1. What's Inside Your Mind?   6. Cinq
2. We Were Once   7. Spiral Dream
3. Lakeside Blues   8. Evidence
4. Brother La   9. Pressing
5. Persuasion   10. If We Could
  11. With You