“Chick Drake”: fem indie folk/acoustic ethereal beauty.
Jessica Pratt is a goddess and former SF resident with a dreamy, spellbinding voice that sounds like it was lifted from a different era. That may be because early influences included Leonard Cohen and Marianne Faithfull, the latter whose voice she tried to imitate when developing her own sound. This is Jessica’s second album but first on Drag City, recorded on a four-track, and every song is warm, beautiful, acoustic fingerpicking with occasional second guitar and double tracking.
In Interview mag: “a lot of it is about personal stories told through a dreamlike lens… I was going through a painful time when I first moved to L.A., and I think a lot of the songs from [this album] sound heartbroken. But people who have listened so far don't pick up on that… maybe the songs are distorted enough or more abstract than I initially thought.”
Highly recommended.
FCC Clean. For you if you like.. Nick Drake, Marissa Nadler, Joni Mitchell’s voice, Jon Brion’s melodies, Marianne Faithfull
Favorites: all are amazing but 2, 3, 5, 8 if I had to choose. play 8 on a rainy day! if you’re feeling literal

1. Wrong Hand (3:09) slow. melancholy, flutelike keys in back… dreamlike scene
2. **Game That I Play (4:12) med-slow. circular structure, abstract lyrics. very Nick Drake. around 3:05 a different, more optimistic section begins then loops back
3. **Strange Melody (5:00) med-slow. hypnotic, mysterious, slightly darker.
4. Greycedes (2:31) mid. brighter. girly, floaty singing.
5. **Moon Dude (3:31) slow. peaceful like the feeling you get when you know sleep is coming and you’re glad that it finally is. “you’re on the outside, looking in/to the escalator humming/they are pulling you from nothing but your loneliness.” I wish the part from 2:57 to 3:15 would repeat a hundred times
6. Jacquelyn in the Background (3:21) slow. falsely sunny/sweet, of longing for a friend. around 2:40 momentarily slows/distorts voice to a lower pitch as if she melted the tape
7. I’ve Got a Feeling (3:45) slow. dissonant, slightly off-putting in a good way, gorgeous and otherworldly
8. **Back, Baby (3:50) med-slow. perfection. catchy, wistful yet uplifting, lyrically of accepting the present with all its pleasure and pain. “sometimes I pray for the rain.” amen
9. On Your Own Love Again (1:30) med-slow. a warm but sorrowful sigh in resignation