Jessica Pratt - Jessica Pratt

Guitar Noise and Other Realities

Continuing the folk skew from previous review of Natalie Royal, Missouri born and San Francisco based Jessica Pratt’s eponymous debut album is more ostensibly rooted to a 60s folk lineage, and with the singular use of acoustic guitar and singular overt production in the multi-tracked vocal, this is a rawer folk offering. In continuing the ‘purity’ theme, this adheres more closely to a basic folk ethos in its overall simplicity, including the unpolished string twangs, screeches and fret-flattenings of Pratt’s finger plucking; the vocal, however, is not as beautifully pure as Royal’s, and it is a cross of many from the female folk line, including the occasional warble of Buffy St Marie as well as a light touch but never full grip of Joanna Newsom’s piercings. The raw recording ethic is exemplified in the hiss and click-starts between tracks – which can seem fresh and obviously live – but this is overstated, for example, in the plain guitar work on sixth track Casper where the instrument is surely slightly out of tune. I’m not convinced by this as being unadorned – it is more unacceptably naff. To counter this, next track Midnight Wheels gets its genuine strength from that same simplicity [but the guitar is in tune] and Pratt’s vocal is absolutely clear and confidently in control, reminding me very much of Beverly Martyn. Similar can be said of ninth track Mother Big River and this illustrates both the increasing appeal as the album progresses as well as how exercising care does not compromise authenticity. Indeed, these three and next two tracks Streets of Mine and Titles Under Pressure, form an impressive core to the ideal of keeping it real, especially with the ceasing of multi-tracked vocals, and emulating folk roots from the past. Final track Dreams is a live offering, so not that different from much else on the album, apart from an accompanying male vocal.