During this record’s captivating, contemplative opener ‘Lydia Wears A Cross’ we meet Baby Julia: a seven-year-old Catholic schoolgirl and Jesus Christ Superstar fanatic who’s mesmerised by religious pageantry...
“Just a child in a leotard beneath a technicolour dreamcoat.” Later in life, Catholic guilt impedes her ‘self-care’ during ‘Ignore Tenderness’: “Been watching porn/ Lights off, headphones on/ Right when the pleasure begins/ My education creeps in…”
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A raw and generous songwriter, Julia Jacklin tries to make sense of her life through song and the intimate scenes that inform PRE PLEASURE activate riveting mini-movies in the listener’s imagination.
“I need you to believe me when I said I found it hard/ To keep myself from floating away…” – unexpected, inspired vocal runs during Jacklin’s beseeching and buoyant latest single ‘Love, Try Not To Let Go’ produce a melody so exquisite that we literally well-up!
Jacklin wrote much of PRE PLEASURE on a Roland keyboard in her Montreal apartment. Her Canada-based touring band, bassist Ben Whiteley and guitarist Will Kidman (both of The Weather Station), contributing masterful additional accompaniment.
But PRE PLEASURE’s secret weapon is string arranger Owen Pallett (Arcade Fire). Recorded in Prague with a full orchestra, his undulating string compositions – weightless, like a pod of playful dolphins leaping through waves – wonderfully enhance the album tracks they grace (particularly the winsome closing lament, ‘End Of A Friendship’).
Label: Liberation Records
Release date: 26 August
