Jessamine Barham returns with a chamber pop-inspired EP, "Light in the Darkness"
Review by Austin Sher
Just released on January 10th, 2021, Jessamine Barham has kicked off her New Year with an all new EP, Light in the Darkness. Please read along with us as we share our complete thoughts on the record, in addition to a background on the artist.
Following up her 2020 EP, Moving On, Jessamine has continued her evolution in sound with Light in the Darkness. For those unaware, Jessamine is a chamber pop musician based out of California. Although she’s been singing since a young age, she began her path in music in 2017 when she started writing and eventually released her first record. Inspired by singers like Aurora, Birdy, and Regina Spektor, we are loving her output thus far.
Coming directly from the artist, but also drawing from our listening, her music is emotional, introspective, and draws from personal experiences she’s had with loneliness, sadness, or just feeling different. As diverse sounding as her music is, it tends to keep its focus on the lyrics and stories at hand.
Spanning four complete songs and only just a little over six minutes in runtime, Jessamine has managed to pack a complete EP’s worth of ideas and rhythms into a short yet complete project. Seeing as though the runtime is quite short, you’d expect something to be lacking whether it be missing stories or incomplete thoughts. However, you’re able to be immediately immerse in the world that she’s created, as if the world has stopped and Jessamine’s music is the complete focus.
Having listened to both Moving On and Light in the Darkness multiple times now, her latest work is the obvious evolution of where she left off, and we commend her for it. As mentioned, she focuses instinctively on the experiences she’s gathered between then and now, but delicately has crafted works of beauty that show off her vocals and immense talents on the piano.
The context of the music is quite personal as noted, but the music created in the background is utterly beautiful. Even a version of just instrumentals would be something that we would enjoy on their own. Considering her output appears to be quite high, we hope it’s not too long until we see another full release, or even just another single, released by Jessamine to tide the fans over while they wait.
With all this being said though, we highly recommend giving it a listen. It’s thoughtful and really makes you stop to ponder life for a bit. Enjoy!
For all things Jessamine Barham, to listen, and to keep up with all future releases and information, please check out the following links below.
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