Album Review: Jessie Baylin Little Spark

Opening with the flourish of a harp, a string section and a shuffling drum beat, the golden wash of '60s and '70s pop is centre-stage in Jessie Baylin's third album Little Spark. Her voice carries echoes of Dusty Springfield, and her pleasant and precise songwriting entwines elements of country, soul and a modern take on the vintage feel of yesteryear. The album's given a clear identity in its production by Kevin Augunas (Cold War Kids, Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros), and the work of multi-instrumentalist and current member of The Shins, Richard Swift, who arranged and played most of the instruments.

Co-written with a range of collaborators, Baylin's songs are well-constructed tales of love and distance. There are distinctly American country flavours present on tracks like Yuma, referencing the town bridging between Arizona's deserts and the Californian coast, where she falls in love with a 'wild coyote' who calls her 'baby doll', and Holiday (“I came all the way from Nashville just to have you break my heart”). The other pop-driven songs balance small details of being in a city (Hurry Hurry) and wide sweeping statements about love and heartbreak to great effect. Love Is Wasted On Lovers, The Greatest Thing That Never Happened and Dancer are sublime pop songs, and Star Cannon is a gem of a ballad.

It feels like a genuine album, and the stories are well-written and performed, but if there's one weakness, it's that they're not very personal. The songwriting tone at times sits in the space between universal and vague, but that is saved by the solid performances and a flawless execution of the aesthetic.