Pungent themes, characters and journeys have always been intrinsic to The Jezabels’ work, and Prisoner seems a rather fitting title following their EPs, The Man Is Dead, She’s So Hard and Dark Storm. The lyric booklet accompanying Prisoner assumes “a letter to a prisoner” lay-out as the album explores an individual’s personal role in their own oppression. The musings aren’t so much philosophical, though, as empowering assertions of our vulnerability and a summons to rise above that which we wallow in.
The Jezabels create soundscapes that uplift with a haunting, spirited intensity; soaring, majestic and stirring in its emotional catharsis. With a band comprising of a metal-enthusiast drummer (Nik Kaloper), classically-trained keyboardist (Heather Shannon), folk-loving guitarist (Samuel Lockwood) and a mesmerising vocalist (Hayley Mary), The Jezabels have morphed their various influences into an incredibly empowering, affecting sound.
From the eerie organs that open the album, Prisoner embarks on a bold journey of wide-screen pop grandeur, brooding emotive vigour and atmospheric ascendency. “So, you say you’re a prisoner?” Mary asks in the title track, before adding: “of whom are you a prisoner?” By the song’s end, the mood has shifted to revivalist images of dreams, dances, visions and “bringing the colour of love back into the day”; a fitting segue into uplifting single, Endless Summer.
Unlike its predecessor, Long Highway moves slowly into its grand climax via a shimmering, melancholy build-up that allows for a spacious, contemplate air instead of the pounding immediacy that can, at times, smother and over-sentimentalise. Then again, urgency is The Jezabels’ trademark and it’s mostly a captivating characteristic. Mary’s love of theatrical 80s pop and gothic melodrama is also evident, but the band’s distinctive aesthetic – one that they’ve shaped across three impressive EPs prior to their debut full-length – is majestic-pop with the emotive intensity to match its loftiness. Not content with merely making music for their friends, The Jezabels want to reach out to faraway places, and – with a triumphant album in Prisoner – they truly have.
Best Track: Deep Wide Ocean
If You Like These, You’ll Like This: Seeds HEY ROSETTA, Until The Earth Begins To Part BROKEN RECORDS,Lungs FLORENCE AND THE MACHINE.
In A Word: Grand
