Album Review: Jasmine Rae - If I Want To

Three albums in and all of a sudden Jasmine Rae feels like a veteran – and if If I Want To is weighed down with responsibility then it's also lifted with determination and the best kind of stubbornness. A warm and varied listen, it blows off steam just as often as it contemplates.

She's still singing about boys though – not men – and Rae's matured quicker than the subject matter of Lazy Boy and My Daddy's Name. Nothing wrong with the attention, though, and Bad Boys Get Me Good is a track dripping in Nashville, but packed with plenty of her own home-grown attitude. Unfortunately the same can't be said for the pedestrian title track, and first single, which is a rare misfire on the record, ambling along with a misplaced gospel-influence that feels anything but natural.

The album plays best when it's true to itself and the devastating loneliness of Just Don't Ask me and the empowered heartbreak of album closer First Song is when it really cuts through. The latter, and ode to a lost loved one, in this case her father, sheds most of her own boundaries for determined emotion. If at the start of the album Rae was looking for direction by the end she's self-assured, even in the darkest moments.

That's the personality of If I Want To, feeling too old to not be controlling the kids at the dance, but not always sure if it wants to deal with the gravity and isolation of adulthood. Compelling listening from an artist who, despite the conflict, commands this situation.