Everyone, Shoosh And Pay Attention To Julia Jacklin

Customers, consider if you will the quandary of the second banana. The guy integral to the band, but just slightly overshadowed by the guy at centrestage. Some are happy in that shadow, some seethe there, and some feel the need to overachieve elsewhere.

In that last category, place Jay Watson. Ever-present in Tame Impala, providing a variety of noises for Kevin Parker’s flights of inspiration, as well as being one of the hubs of Pond. Still finding himself with some downtime, he’s also GUM – and that’s the guise you’ll get a new album from next week. Previewing that, Gemini (Spinning Top Music). And, continuing the good trick of all these brandnames giving you something similar but different as it phases by, while Jay stares off into the middle distance, tapping his foot, watching for falling stars. There’s an odd, almost mechanical, funk to it just as another point of departure.

And sometimes you can forced to the front as the main man might not be quite functioning for any number of reasons. Tommy Stinson is the guy who isn’t Paul Westerberg in the so-often-namechecked sloppy rock and roll machine called The Replacements. Tommy has a perfectly named combo called Bash & Pop for when The ‘Mats aren’t speaking/in rehab/generally over it and On The Rocks (Fat Possum/Inertia) is messy, sprawling, has a drinking problem, and is just terrific.  

As loved and inspirational to another breed of guitar music lovers are/were Guided By Voices. The exquisitely named Tobin Sprout was/is Robert Pollard’s main foil in the ‘classic’ lineup of the combo, but as they appear to be on one of their regular ‘hiatus’, Mr Sprout strikes out to operate under his own banner with Future Boy Today/Man Of Tomorrow (Burger Records). He doesn’t set out to reinvent the wheel as the guitars spiral and swoop, and the voice seems almost incidental except as part of the overall construction. It has some of the moody beauty of the original combine, and will certainly satisfy the enthusiasts. 

Our own Rolling Blackouts CF have a more freewheeling clatter to their style. Julie’s Place (Ivy League) is a drive up the north coast, tapping out time on the roof through the open car window. Conversely, they also seem to have an inner-suburban rattle to the noise, but that just might be the Kingswood’s diff or wheel bearings. There’s something to them that you can’t quite put your finger on, but it encourages a curiosity to just sit and listen as you try and work it out. Of course, they might not even not what it is – which could also be part of the charm. It’s a sweet mystery that’s even got them signed to SubPop for the rest of the world. How about that. 

Of course, names can be a little misleading. Body Type feels a little metal, or even a little emo. But it turns out to be four near-neophyte musicians – the band forming only around six months ago -  making songs of an incredible downbeat sweetness as they ponder the human condition, through prisms of everything from relationship fragility to whose turn it is to put the share-house’s bins out, even as life closes in around them. 264 (Our Golden Friend) is a slightly frayed conversation over the corn flakes that might be a little past their use-by date. Their naivety may be their greatest strength just now, but they quietly demand your consideration. 

But her puzzling on the internal and external life has made Julia Jacklin one of the year’s great discoveries. She’s a couple of steps along from where Body Type are – she’s still philosophically questioning, but with an offhand weariness that she’s almost making out it’s somehow not all getting to her. But you know it is. Don’t Let The Kids Win (Liberation) is the title track of her quite extraordinary album, as she drags you in, but keeps you just out of arm’s length as she tries to maybe tries to work it all out on her own. She may be just asking you to listen, and not need you to provide the answers. So just shoosh, and pay attention.

If looking for eclectic overachievement, Alex The Astronaut. Australian abroad – studying Maths and Physics on a soccer scholarship in New York. No, really. Another who is observational about the world and herself, with Already Home (Minkowski Records/Kobalt) covering everything from “…Billionaires for president to parking fines at hospitals”. Her view is a little askance and individual, her music too. It just makes me happy. It will with you too. 

Also having taken that journey from here to there (‘there’ in this case being Oakland, California) – although probably somewhat more likely to be making it back hurriedly, given the week’s events – Hazel English is making another personal reflective music, here with Make It Better (POD/Inertia) a shimmering thing that is somehow a little old and new at once. There is much intelligence in this woman’s pop music. The intellect, emotion and sensitivity of the Jacklins, Astronauts, and Englishes of the world is what brings hope. And fuck knows we need that now.