Mid-’60s psychedelia and all its acid and white witches has been mined pretty intensely in the last decade or so, but Jessie Jones’s solo debut exists almost as if to say that’s no reason to stop. Formerly of Orange County’s Feeding People, which was getting some significant attention before breaking up in 2013, Jones took a couple years off to travel the country and discover a much less garage-dependent take on a ’60s sound. The resulting self-titled solo record is psychedelic bubble pop with a good dose of believing in your own crystal visions, which is to say that it’s fun and catchy and convincingly whimsical.
NPR hailed the album, saying:
Jones’ self-titled album—her first since Feeding People’s 2013 dissolution—suffers no shortage of these infectious psych-pop moments that, no matter how sticky an organ part or bass line gets, remain lithe through Jones’ melt-in-your-mouth voice. For proof, look no further than the album’s opening track and first single, “Sugar Coated.” Led off by folk fingerpicking, the song soon reveals itself to be feast of ’50s piano pop, Wall of Sound vocals, even a touch of jazz percussion. These elements should not all work together in such a tidy package—a feeling replicated all over Jessie Jones—but she brings them together for one of the best (and sweetest-sounding) musical kiss-offs you’ll hear this year.
The Los Angeles Times called one track, “Sugar Coated,” the “brightest, most whimsical kiss-off song one will hear this year,” and Pitchfork concluded the album’s far-ranging instrumental approaches present an intriguing psychological portrait:
Mottled with giddy tambourines and spattering drum fills, the album is a little bipolar in its approach to instrumentation, but it isn’t messy….Jessie Jones is a well-rounded introduction, one that holds little back. When asked about her personal philosophy, Jones is frank. “Love yourself and speak your truth. I believe in individualism, I’m not anything but who I am is only something I live with.” This album’s inconsistencies are deliberate. Without them, she would be presenting a false identity, an incomplete version of herself. With them, we can more fully work toward understanding Jessie Jones, the individual.
LA Record’s interview offers more of this kind of radical honesty from Jones, although the interviewer may have gotten too carried away probing into the fact that Jones believes she’s been abducted by aliens. Whatever abductions took place, she seems to have used the material well, so we’ll leave it at that.
