Album of the Week: Jessica Pratt | Jessica Pratt

I’m breaking with tradition, once again, covering a record that isn’t exactly new. Maybe it’s new to you, it was new to me when I first heard it, which is really more to the point of Album of the Week.

Regular readers know I love Jessica Pratt’s most recent album Quiet Signs which was a timely Album of the Week back in 2019. As one does when love is in the air, I went looking for more Jessica Pratt and landed on her self titled debut album from 2012, released on Birth Records (a funny name to search for). As fate would have it, I found more love.

I dare you to listen to “Half Twain the Jesse” and not fall, hard. This is a record with a live feel, mostly just Jessica Pratt on guitar and vocals with the occasional fret buzz and cracking voice left in to remind us that sometimes too much polish can make things dull. Pratt’s voice is endlessly captivating and distinct as is her way with words and making music from them, and her songs ring with a rightness that speaks to an old soul.

This road is whole, lord
This road is dull, lord
And this road troubles in a state so blind
And starin’ like a weasel that makes headlines

But I can’t say that I really want
Anything this time
But I’m turnin’ down the road with some heavy line

Jesse there’s a curve in the road
And its shaped just like a toucan’s nose
And I can’t find my Clementine
How we’ll lay in spaces just in time.

I’m going to tell you a secret — if you look around, you can still find a sealed copy of this record for a steal of a price. I did.