Jessica Pratt – Quiet Signs [LP]

Description

Jessica Pratt is not a loud performer. She does not have to be. In a club of a few hundred, even the bar staff are known to go quiet while she’s on stage. Her third album, Quiet Signs, feels like a distillation of this power. The album leads off with “Opening Night,” a nod toGena Rowlands’harrowing, brilliant performance in theJohn Cassavetesfilm of the same name. Its also an emblem of where this spare, mysterious collection of songs falls in the course of Pratts career.

“On some level I considered an audience while making the last record (2015’s On Your Own Love Again),” she writes, “But my creative world was still very private then and I analyzed the process less. This was the first time I approached writing with the idea of a cohesive record in mind.”

After a collection of demos and early studio recordings (Jessica Pratt, Birth Records, 2012) earned her a small, dedicated audience, Pratt moved from San Francisco to Los Angeles and recorded her first intentional album in her bedroom in a matter of months. That album,On Your Own Love Again(Drag City, 2015), would bring her around the world many times, leading many to fall under the spell of Jessica Pratt the performer, the songwriter, the singer with the heavy-lidded voice that feels alien and familiar at the same time.

Her first album fully recorded in a professional studio setting,Quiet Signsfinds Pratt’s songwriting and accompanying guitar work refined — more distinct and direct. Songs like “Fare Thee Well” and “Poly Blue” retain glimmers ofOYOLA‘s hazy day afternoon spells, yet delicate flute, strings sustained by organ arrangements, and rehearsal room piano now gesture towards the lush chamber pop and longing ofThe Left Banke. On the albums first single, “This Time Around,” Pratt hits on a profound, late-night clarity over just a couple of deep chords, evokingCaetano Veloso‘s casual seaside brilliance. And before the curtain drops onQuiet Signs, Pratt provides a show-stopping closer, “Aeroplane.”

In the world ofQuiet Signs, the black of night usually represents fear, despair, resignation; finally at home descending towards the illuminated city, she sings over black leather drone and tambourine shuffle with a newfound resolve.Quiet Signsis the journey of an artist emerging from the darkened wings, growing comfortable as a solitary figure on a sprawling stage.

The album was written in Los Angeles and recorded at Gary’s Electric in Brooklyn, NY over 2017 and 2018. It was co-produced byAl Carlson. He plays flute, organ and piano on some songs.Matt McDermottalso played piano and string synthesizer. It will be released on Mexican Summer on February 8, 2019.

Tracklist:

1. Opening Night
2. As the World Turns
3. Fare Thee Well
4. Here My Love
5. Poly Blue
6. This Time Around
7. Crossing
8. Silent Song
9. Aeroplane

UPC: 184923123913
Label: Mexican Summer
Release Date: 2.8.19
Format: Vinyl