Jaymay, Cahoone, & Gemini reviewed
Jaymay Autumn Fallin’ (Blue Note)
Sera Cahoone Only As The Day Is Long (Sub Pop)
Miwa Gemini This Is How I Found You (Addictive)
A trio of March releases give a peak at the American singer-songwriter from an exclusively feminine perspective — at many of the same crossroads as men.
Thankfully the Blue Note logo on Jaymay’s debut, Autumn Fallin’, doesn’t signal another Norah Jones. Instead, Jamie Seerman has Emily Haines’ hostile sincerity, an ear for acoustic overtones, and a sketch of Peter Bjorn & John’s Writer’s Block for an album cover. Autumn chronicles a New York romance, and, before getting all Richard Gere/Winona Ryder, between the longing bridges and string-drenched outros (“Blue Skies”) sits a potentially formidable singer-songwriter, albeit one evidently running in the wrong direction. As the concept unfolds, only mild revelations make it to the surface (the diary entries of “Sea Green, See Blue,” problems concentrating on the song at hand for “Gray Or Blue”), while her guts remain deafeningly silent. The text-message-style lyric sheet spells out her immaturity; Jaymay is far too wary (both consciously and by the radio-ready production) to give up anything worth having. She isn’t Norah Jones, just the Norah Jones of the Lili Allen/Katy Perry generation.
Sensing Grand Archives weren’t enough (Do you have another brother Darryl?), Sub Pop dip back into the Carissa’s Wierd/Band Of Horses pot for Sera Cahoone’s sophomore disc. Though the oldest of our trio and default most weary-sounding, Cahoone’s Only As The Day Is Long gets reluctant in the sharing department. Leaving the lyrics alone to ring the bell, Cahoone’s voice occasionally disappears in shadow harmonies, a thumping drum mix, and rather muscular country-folk arrangements. Perhaps she favors such being a former drummer, yet she and band close the distance between intimacy and anonymity with startling haste. Her power rests in bittersweet quips (“I hear a sound/but it’s all inside my head”); making them heard is a whole other deal.
And so it falls to our least recognizable subject, Miwa Gemini, to give us hope. This Is How I Found You paints a picture that doesn’t treat moods as days of the week but evolving, nebulous shades. Though her dark palette might tip her more for the non-commerciality of an Eleni Mandell or Shannon Wright, she’s as prepared to challenge God (“Pieces”) and weather a tempest with an apocalyptic, Stevie Nicks-ish vibrato (“Angel’s Prayers”) as pledge unwavering devotion (“Something Ordinary”). While the plodding pace and partly nulling slapback vocal echo might raise one’s serotonin levels, Gemini has only given a half-hour to mull. Wouldn’t mind a little more.
— Steve Forstneger
Click here to download Sera Cahoone’s “Only As The Day Is Long.”
Click here to download Miwa Gemini’s “Pieces.”
