REVIEW: Julia Jacklin's The Gem is a Shining Example of Her Best Work

There are as many sides to Julia Jacklin as there are reflections in a diamond, and her fourth studio album, The Gem, is a shining example of her best work.

Released September 25th, The Gem is packed with rich monologues about the clash between protecting your independence while craving intimacy. A singer-songwriter from Melbourne, Julia Jacklin’s dreamy indie pop / confessional folk records are a blend of raw vocal talent and vulnerability. But her lyrics are the spine of her work.

If her music could be summed up in one word, it would be: grasping. Grasping for a hand to hold, to understand love and connection, and to make sense of our internal contradictions. Since her debut album Don’t Let the Kids Win, Julia has captured the feeling of anxiety and painted what it’s like to exist somewhere in between knowing and wanting, chasing and running away, accepting and letting go.

For ten years, Julia has pulled listeners into her world and immersed them into the sensitive snapshots of her life. You can feel the carpet on the floor, smell the stale cigarettes in the ashtray and hear the basketball kissing the court. The Gem is a lyrical revisit to her early work, with introspective reflections on her growth and the past. Sonically, it’s a nod to her sophomore album, Crushing, with some familiar chord progressions and energetic guitar.

The first track on the record, “Brand New,” begins the album on a refreshingly confident note: “All that surrounds me appears as if new / Brand new, brand new, brand new.” Julia’s inner world is smart and complicated, and reflects the difficulties of traversing ruts to get to the other side. “Brand New” is the other side. “Today I'll put down the knife / (It won't cut through) / Can't afford to have an inner life / (Got things to do).”

But The Gem isn’t only about straddling life’s difficulties and making it through. From melancholy tracks, to an echoey lullaby-like voice and stripped-back acoustics; The Gem offers duality in its truest sense.

“The Hardest Thing” encapsulates the overall theme of this ten-song album: a struggle to accept love as your complicated, mercurial self. “The hardest thing to do / is believe when you say ‘I love you.”’ Hauntingly visual and dripping with doubt, the song pulls you into the backseat and asks you, “How do you know when someone really loves you?” And worse, “Is love supposed to feel this way?”

In “Angel's Vision” she depicts a twisting maze of vines that block her view, but they “never shackled you.” It’s easy to become overwhelmed by the throes of life, and the confusing dichotomy of both getting a grip and still feeling lost. Sometimes change requires some form of surrender and permission to let someone to guide you toward the light. But “Angel's Vision” isn’t a love song, rather a cautionary tale. The light at the end of the tunnel might actually be a fire. Pay attention to the smoke creeping in from under the door.

Leaning on a bar and spinning a ring in her finger, she continues dabbling in the divine, even imagining herself as a Godly figure hovering over moments in her life, both big and small. “If I had the hand of God, / would the God whose hand I have / be the kind to know when to let go before it gets this bad?” Nothing is in her control. Even in her imagination, having an almighty power still wouldn’t steer her toward a clearer future. In the bridge, she wonders if divine intervention can help solve the riddle of pursuing a music career while feeling indifferent to being under the spotlight.

Her lead single,“Get Away From Me (I Think I’ll Love You Soon),” revitalizes the album’s energy and drives a hopeful, positive note through the record with its upbeat rhythm and catchy chorus. In a classic Julia-fashioned manner, she claims the space she needs to regain her independence while holding onto love at an arms length.

As expected, Julia’s vocal performance is delightfully bare and masterfully controlled. My favourite performance is in “Walk On Me” where her voice swells like a slow-burning fire before punching through the air at the end of its six-minute run.

The final track, “The Wish,” closes the album on a tender note. A reflection of pains and wrongdoings in her past, she emerges into the present hopeful and confident. “A foreign landscape / With no trees, not a drop of rain / Would not believe things could grow from pain.” Accompanied by the delicate harmonies of The Maes, an Australian folk band; “The Gem” ends leaving us wondering how Julia Jacklin will interpret the many colours in the next chapter of her life.

Listening to “The Gem” is akin to driving back to your hometown and revisiting old corners of your mind, not just to see how far you’ve come, but to also recognize the parts of you that are still there.

Julia Jacklin’s North American tour launches in two weeks, and her latest album is a hidden gem not to miss. Be sure to catch her in Théâtre Beanfield this upcoming November in Montreal. Tickets are around $40, a fair price to check out an artist from across the world with a voice worth listening to.

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