“Was I On Your Mind?“
from the album Firesight
2008
iTunes
It is getting more and more difficult to get attention in the swelling mass of female singer-songwriters. In the age of Amy Winehouse and Lily Allen, it might be best to try not to get attention at all. Such is the path that singer-songwriter Jessie Baylin takes on her unassuming label debut.
Baylin’s sound is undeniably pop. There are shades of folk, country, and jazz intertwined throughout the songs, but this is a grown-up’s version of a pop album. Though the album slides around from one genre to the next, to her credit she sounds incredibly comfortable at all times. Her vocals have a slightly smoky twang that gives everything an easy romantic glow. It is the kind of easy-going album you throw on for a lazy Sunday morning and let float through the house as you go about your day.
She aims for velvety chanteuse on the moody piano ballad “Lonely Heaven,” and pulls it off with a track that sounds like the personification of a rainy autumn day in New York. Things get a little sloppy on “Want,” where the muddled production buries the sexy hook in a pile of horns, guitar, and strings. There is a jazzy edge to the acoustic breeze, “I’ll Cry for the Both of Us,” but Baylin’s vocals lack the sultry tones to pull off the Norah Jones vibe the song aims for. She fares better when turning up the tempo just a bit. The more driven pace of “Not a Day More” fits her tender voice well, as the rumbling riffs seem to melt into the vocals rather than drown them.
The dusty acoustic backdrop of “See How I Run,” with just a pinch of twang, puts her comfortably in Kathleen Edwards territory. It is a fantastic start to the album, and delivers one of her best hooks. Country-fried “Tennessee Gem” is a glistening ode to her fiancé, Kings of Leon frontman Nathan Follow. The jangling “Was I On Your Mind?” features a heartbreaking melodic hook where she fears the worst but pleads, “I don’t want to be right / I want a good lie / I want a new truth / I want your fight / Tell me I’m wrong, instead.”
Firesight does not deliver the immediate “wow” that grabs your attention straightaway, but that actually works in its favor. Rather, it is a grower that blossoms and deepens its roots into you with each listen.