ALBUM REVIEW: Jesse Jo Stark – ‘MUSE’

Jesse Jo Stark’s MUSE is a deeply personal output of a profound period in her life. As she describes it; “heartache, losing yourself, finding yourself, loving, leaving, ‘n remembering what you’re made of.”

It was written and recorded during three snowy weeks Jesse spent in the stillness of the mountains in Aspen, Colorado, the isolation of the retreat leading to a natural rollout of ardently personal songwriting. Lyrically and topically, she has opened up to her audience in ways she hasn’t yet. It finds her musically stripping back, the instrumentation being intentionally more sparse, to where listening to it feels like you’re sitting on the porch with her in Aspen, glass of red in hand. The slide guitars feel like the cold breezes, and the songs are “letters and reminders”. Stark articulates that writing these songs was “like bleeding. It’s gonna be a bitch to sing these songs.”

beautiful goodbye sits you right in the tonal blueprint of the album with its acoustic simplicity, it’s emotionally stinging, straightforward and defiant. Her sultry purr in chaos informs you of the complex realities of the mess that can occur between two people so important to each other. colorado is a massive centrepiece for this album and era as the first and only single released, and introducing the intimate delivery that this period of writing landed in. The gentle, fingerpicked guitar and spatial processing nods specifically to the location of this process, depicting the serenity of the landscape and the reflection that unfolded for her.

the raven is an ode to the ‘love of her life’, linking to classic Edgar Allen Poe undertones and invoking her gothic sensibilities. Then, in she is a flower, Stark plays with the duality of delicacy and danger with femininity, stating herself as a flower “waiting for the water to rise / Down to the darkest parts of a centre / Where nobody else dares to touch”. Yet, she will “be the flower that blossoms and blooms”. After that, hollywoods afraid of love explores commentary on intimacy and survival of relationships in the public eye. These three are personal track favourites of mine.

The title track shifts the focus back inwards, it is a song about being inspired by oneself. sugar crash discusses how difficult periods in relationships can be “like a sugar crash, it’s bittersweet”. when I knew I should go utilizes somewhat hopeful major keys to underscore a bittersweet statement of clarity. The one departure from the production and Americana-songwriter delivery is loves not dead, as it brings in a far more modern synthpop approach with low-end frequencies, making it feel somewhat out of place aurally, but thematically it still accommodates for a cohesive full listen. 

On rip, Stark again visits her notion of the emotions of love being visceral, a conceptual callback to last year’s single grim reaper. The penultimate track age of being honest features a musical climax of the album, as the arrangement surges into an impactful crescendo of crying electric guitar and agonised vocals, anchoring an outburst of bare vulnerability to sit frankly on the record. 

sundays call concludes the album on a more gentle and sentimental note. The title directly cites the weekly ritual Stark and her long-term partner had during a relationship break, when every Sunday they would catch up on the phone and drink coffee from teacups together, even though not being a couple at the time. The song fades out with real, sweet voice note recordings between her and her partner, which wraps up the album on a note of resolve, connection, and peace.

MUSE is a triumphant exercise in restraint in songcraft, revealing Stark as even more of a formidable songwriter. Musically, it steps back slightly from her cinematic smokescreen while remaining stylistically pleasing. The album and the two accompanying music videos so far —colorado and age of being honest—admirably contribute an intimate personal layer to her artistic world. 

For fans of: Alexandra Savior, Lana Del Rey, Mazzy Star

‘MUSE’ by Jesse Jo Stark is out now on Deadly Doll / BMG.

Words by Gracie MJ