Jessica Bailiff

Jessica Bailiff’s first solo album in four years is full of quiet and simple folk ballads. Bailiff’s earlier albums were produced by Low’s Alan Sparhawk, and although Bailiff takes sole responsibility for recording and mixing on this album, she’s kept the simplicity attained on her previous releases. The instrumentation on these tracks is cohesive and clean, allowing her vocals to take centre stage and there’s an underlying melancholy in the melodies and this is especially prevalent on "Cinq.” Although the tracks string together nicely, Bailiff takes a few departures from her album’s standard sound, "Persuasion” has a feeling of medieval court music, opening with an eerie piano, high-pitched strings and the addition of a recorder, and "Spiritual Dream” illuminates the Russian signing talents of Nelly Josephine and Iulia, the only guest vocalists on the album. Feels like Home winds down with "If We Could,” a small departure from the rest of the album that opens with a wall of noise and gradually births the song’s fuzzed-out lyrics.