Julia Jacklin returns with 4th album ‘The Gem’
The Australian singer-songwriter transcends new heights on her soulful and existential 4th solo album.
★★★★★
Photo: James J. Robinson
“Let me be brand new,” Julia Jacklin cries out on The Gem’s magical and ethereal opening song. It certainly sounds like a rebirth, and it’s the perfect introduction to the dazzling collection of songs that Jacklin has put together for her fourth solo album.
The Gem is Jacklin’s first record since 2022’s critically acclaimed PRE PLEASURE and her first since signing to indie powerhouse 4AD. It’s a collection of songs that may appear understated and sparse at first but, in reality, they contain multitudes and layers of meaning and purpose.
Album opener Brand New brings us in perfectly with its nondescript electronic drums and subtle open acoustic guitar strums. However, as soon as Jacklin’s voice crashes into focus, it is all systems go. Her vocal repeats and flows in circular motions, repeating the title refrain seemingly ad infinitum.
Just as you are lulled into a wonderful trance, new and disconcerting sounds join and, before you even realise it, you become swept up in a tidal wave of cacophonous sounds and harmonies. Just like that, we are in. Jacklin has us firmly hanging on every note and isn’t letting us go for the next forty minutes or so.
If the album’s opener beamed us into glorious sonic space, then God Sometimes brings us crashing back down to reality with its acoustic drums, guitars and direct vocals. The slightly syncopated drums send us driving forward as Jacklin declares: “You have to be a God sometimes / Force the moment to spring / Unlike the seasons / It won’t just spring.”
It captures a theme Jacklin explores throughout The Gem: taking control of oneself, but also grappling with the concept of freedom and how difficult it can be to balance love squarely between those two ideals.
This existential questioning continues in one of the album’s more traditionally folky songs, If I Had The Hand Of God, where Jacklin shows us again how, despite looking at life’s biggest questions, she also remains the master of the minutia. Jacklin sings about deciding to “pick up the phone / Take a breath and call my dad.” It’s the sort of small moment that is worth a thousand words. A reference to The Carter Family’s spiritually timeless Will the Circle Be Unbroken follows and, by the time Jacklin’s beaming falsetto hits, it feels like we are ascending up to the heavens ourselves.
Elsewhere, on The Hardest Thing, Jacklin’s voice explodes out of the speakers. The recording sounds so full of life and energy. Musically, the entire record simultaneously has enough room to really breathe but enough layered and nuanced instrumentals to keep the songs from ever sounding bare or thin.
The secret sauce, as ever, is Jacklin’s transcendent vocals. On Angel Vision, it feels like her voice has frozen time. Its power and beauty stop you in your tracks. You are still caught in its trance as the next song, a rumination on dreams titled Real Life, begins and fades away.
Just like that, we are sent spiralling headfirst into the album’s joyful, jubilant and triumphant beating heart. Lead single Get Away From Me (I Think I’ll Love You Soon) is the sort of song that should automatically trigger the repeat button. You simply cannot hear it without wanting to just hear it again. It’s a testament to how well sequenced The Gem is that this comes in towards the end of the album and not earlier on. It feels like such a payoff after a series of real introspective and wistful songs. It’s the sort of upbeat pop song that reminds you why music is so fun in the first place. Despite being endlessly infectious, the song also gets to the core of what Jacklin is battling with throughout the entire record: the fear of making yourself vulnerable enough to love and be loved.
At the climax of the album’s penultimate track Walk On Me, Jacklin’s heavenly, wordless vocalising suggests she has exhausted all of her words and can only exhale. The Gem is full of questions, but Jacklin seems more and more content to have not found the answers as the record winds down.
Closing track I Wish feels wonderfully cathartic as gorgeous harmonies and sparse acoustic guitar ring things out on a hopeful, soulful note. As she recalls that she “wished someone had been there at the time”, it’s incredibly moving to hear The Mae’s harmonies supplementing Jacklin’s vocals for the first time on the album in beautiful defiance of the loneliness of the lyric. It’s a touching note to end on.
The Gem is an incredible musing and insight into the vulnerability of love and life, and just how difficult it can be to embrace both side by side. It’s not afraid to look into the abyss but refuses to ever be pulled inside it. Most importantly, it is full of wonderful, well-crafted and soulful songs. Julia Jacklin may be desperate to become “brand new”, but one thing is for sure: on The Gem, she’s certainly better than ever.
The Gem is out now via 4AD. Buy a physical copy of the album here.
