Jessica Bailiff

Cover Image
Jessica Bailiff - Jessica Bailiff

October 21, 2002

US CD/LP Kranky KRANK054
JP CD/LP P-Vine, PCD-23303

  1. Swallowed - [MP3]
  2. Hour of the Traces
  3. The Hiding Place
  4. Big Hill - [MP3]
  5. You Were So Close
  6. Disappear - [MP3]
  7. Mary
  8. Time is an Echo
  9. The Thief
  10. Figure Eight (for Jonathan) [*Japanese bonus track] - [MORC045] [MP3]

Jessica Bailiff
Additional playing, recording, and mixing by Jesse Edwards
"Disappear" written and performed with Noel Keesee
Mixed byt Tom Herbers
Artwork and design by Ryoku Yonekawa

Call it Jessica Bailiff, Untitled or anything you want; the third album from Jessica Bailiff exceeds the promise of her first two albums. Simultaneously clearer and murkier, it features a more acoustic focus and experimental sound placement. Recorded at home with help from Jesse Edwards (Red Morning Chorus) and former bandmate Noel Keesee, the album was realized between Sept. 2001 to Feb. 2002. Two songs feature the violin-uke (most notably the stark "Hour of the Traces"), there is a tin whistle on a few tracks, piano, a few computer fx, drums, smeary guitars and even sitar.

Jessica Bailiff describes her new album as being about "...stagefright, dreams, loss of creative energy/desire, love & time, living in the same place all your life, ghosts, near-death experiences, etc..." After recording two albums with the members of Low, Jessica Bailiff has created a direct, stripped-back album that showcases her strengths in both songwriting and arragements. Chris Nosal wrote in Philadelphia City Paper that "Bailiff merges the best of rock, folk and genuine sonic exploration into a loud and powerfuyl whisper." David Keenan wrote in The Wire that "Bailiff has succeeded in creating a singular soundworld where frail, intensely personal wordage combines with hurricane sound."