Cassandra Jenkins albums

2021

An Overview on Phenomenal Nature - 84%

               Ethereal singer-songwriters can be a dime a dozen these days, but I’m always a sucker for a pretty voice singing songs of substance and Cassandra Jenkins certainly knows how to write a good song. Lyrically, Jenkins seems to be singing about nature and parallels to friends and family she has recently lost. The overtones of “New Bikini” speaks of a friend who is terminally ill and she wants to get to the ocean since “the water cures everything”. On “Hailey” she talks about new year resolutions and a woman who wants to reinvent herself after stealing all her money.

         On a musical front, the music has elements of jazz though it is less improvisation and more just elegant arrangements. “Crosshairs” knows exactly how to use woodwinds to paint an elegant background, where “Hard Drive” mixes a road trip with thinking like a computer where a saxophone wails in the background. Lead track “Michelangelo” plays around with a simple drum accompaniment in a masterful way, and sets the tone for the record which is barely 31 minutes long but feels much more substantial than many that are double that in length. The atmospheric closer “The Ramble” I feel like could possibly go on forever and stay relevant, though it’s possibly the area where she has room to grow the most (either expand on the idea or make it multiple melodies intertwined a la Julia Holter?) 

Best Songs: Hard Drive, Michelangelo, Hailey