The last few years have been quite busy for Jessie Baylin. Raising her 2-year-old daughter Violet with her husband, Kings of Leon drummer Nathan Followill, is in itself a tough task, but she also spent that time creating Dark Place, her fourth album. It’s an album she wasn’t even sure she wanted to make. After the birth of her daughter, she felt that her time to create music might be over, and that’s partially what Dark Place is about. “You have a child and you sort of have this funeral for yourself in a way, because you assume that you can’t be the person that you once were. It doesn’t take away from the joy at all, but for me exorcising that out with this album was very healing,” Baylin said to The New York Times Magazine. The entire album is dedicated to her daughter, with lyrics that convey the complicated emotions that might come with starting a family, but the title track, a lullaby for the toddler, is especially touching.
Musically, Dark Place is pleasantly diverse. The sound ping-pongs between influences like Dusty Springfield, Billie Holiday, Stevie Nicks and Nancy Sinatra. Equal parts ’60s orchestral pop and ’90s psychedelic pop, Dark Place keeps things interesting. “All That I Can Do” sounds fairly Sinatra-esque, but with modern rock twists like crackling guitars. “To Hell and Back” has a different vibe, low-key with sticky-sweet vocals and a talky guitar riff. Equally interesting is Baylin’s choice for a final track. She closes the album with a cover of Bette Midler’s 1972 hit version of “Do You Want to Dance.”
In Dark Place, Baylin’s ethereal voice delivers a contradiction of moods. Uplifting lyrics are paired with angsty instrumentals, and cheerful melodies accompany melancholy musings throughout. “Kiss Your Face,” for example, has a cheerful danceable beat, but explains something as dark as the feeling of “loving something so much you think of it dying.” This disparity mimics real-life emotion, specifically Baylin’s awareness of “both the light and the dark that comes with parenthood, the restless emotion that comes from a deep, nearly panicked love.”
Rating: B
