Jessica Pratt

as far as i’m concerned Jessica Pratt’s debut is an album of American standards. every single song is a true classic, cruel and sad and terribly hopeful, unfailingly melodic and sweet, like if Elliott Smith wrote a full album of “Say Yes”s. music writers often mention the timelessness of her songs—“this could’ve been written at any point in the last 100 years”, etc—but the focus on the pastiche aspects of her music undermine the simple fact of her craft, which is awe-inspiring.    on her debut record the moments of immediate melodic pop genius (“Half Twain,” “Titles Under Pressure”) are sort of Trojan horses for the songs that unfurl themselves more slowly or take a little longer to set in (“Casper”, “Midnight Wheels”).   i first found this album on the cusp of my 21st birthday, deep in the winter of 2021, and I would walk circular miles inside a bitterly cold and mostly empty Providence late into the night etching these songs deep into my brain, where they became seeds in a perpetual state of half-germination. at some point it became one of those records i’d listened to so many times that i would find myself unconsciously singing phantom harmonies alongside it, or hearing arrangements that didn’t exist; eventually the specter of these imagined arrangements became substantive enough that i decided it would be a fun exercise to try and learn the whole record to actualize my fantasies. in 2023, as a procrastination tactic while finishing New Excellent Woman, i learned the songs of Jessica Pratt (by ear and with the invaluable help of some honorable anonymous UltimateGuitar users and Youtubers) and began arranging additional instrumentation for them, starting with the ones i had the clearest ideas for. i had about 40% of the record finished when i got distracted by other projects.  in late october 2025 before a show i found myself at dinner with some representatives from my gracious label and the extremely skillful publicist they had somehow convinced and then hired to work on my album. this was the first (maybe last?) instance of such a Dinner™ where i was momentarily allowed to pretend to be a Real Musician; slightly wine drunk and spurred by pre-show nerves and the desire to impress these kind and hardworking industry movers I boasted that I had covered Jessica Pratt’s first album in its entirety “many years ago” and that it was “locked and loaded, totally ready to go.” of couwrse this was a lie but the delusion of being a worthy client was intoxicating. they reacted with surprise and told me i should send them the album ASAP; i bargained that i needed to “re-mix it and add some flourishes”, which effectively bought me one month to record and mix the bulk of the album, which I proceeded to then do in a manic state of self-imposed frenzy. while i’m sure the label suspects some misrepresentation or hyperbole on my end, they are only learning the extent to my embarrassing, needlessly stressful farce upon me submitting this very text to them.    this is to say: my ability to hastily fashion together a working album from these songs is a testament to the music’s enduring power, its durability and pliability, its simplicity and sense of inevitability, and also just how much it has meant to me in my life. enjoy!  - Asher White