JESSICA PRATT
On Your Own Love Again
Spunk
Jessica Pratt picked up her brothers discarded Stratocaster when she was 15 and schooled herself on the instrument by listening to T-Rex songs. It was her relocation to San Francisco that immersed her into the world of folk music where she became friends with members of White Fence and often got compared to the ‘freak-folk’ artists of recent years.
On Your Own Love Again is predominantly Pratt’s ethereal voice and precisely plucked guitar. There is a sense of being caught in a time warp as the easy comparison is to pigeonhole Pratt as a mimic of Joni Mitchell or Joan Baez, but On Your Own Love Again is much more than a regurgitation of folk history.
Pratt slows down the tape during the recording of Jacquelyn In The Background making the music melt into itself. For The Game That I Play she adds her own harmonies to add more voices to the room without sacrificing any intimacy. Back, Baby is up tempo by Pratt’s usual glacier pace, and delivers one of her finest lines in ‘your love is just a myth I devised’, during the well travelled territory of a break up song.
On Your Own Love Again is so raw that you would envisage it was recorded with Pratt in the middle of a mushroom circle with a swarm of fairies to keep her company. On Your Own Love Again is simple, but glorious at the same time.
CHRIS HAVERCROFT
