With enough experience in musical projects to last a person a lifetime, Jade McInally now stands before us front and centre, delivering a gem of a debut with EP What The Fuck Was I Thinking.
Formerly of Teeth & Tongue and currently playing with Jess Ribeiro, McInally serves as the principle songwriter of Jade Imagine, a project that allows musical influences such as The Church and Fleetwood Mac to come to the fore. The result is a rich concoction of heady, fuzzed out neo-psychedelia that perfectly frames around McInally’s candid songwriting.
McInally’s vocals are languid and airy on opening track Stay Awake, the song revealing layers of surf-rock inspired instrumentation over its course. You and I squeezes a torrent of ideas within its verses before reaching its soaring chorus, while Esteem is defiant in its message and steered by an enveloping outro that sees the band come into full force. Walkin’ Around follows, proving the strength of the band once again, who pace their backing to perfectly heighten the song’s sentiments. Tell Her She’s Dreamin’ is aptly dreamy, closing the EP with sharp synths that punctuate and leave listeners pining for even more. Jade Imagine may have only been in existence for a short time now, but it seems McInally and her band are set to become one of the most venerated acts in the country.
By Holly Pereira
