Album Review

Jemma Willard – Out of Reach EP

• 6th Oct 2010

Jemma Willard is the spoonful of sugar you get when you have that bitter and melancholic medicine of folk rock. However, her music is never that simple and with a soul of classical influence you feel the warmth of every bar, just like an old fashioned radiator.

‘Out of Reach’, the four track EP is an example of what good music should be, a mix of poppy catchiness and rock’s raw edge. It is not a raucous affair, but soft and considered which makes the enigmatic voice all the more appealing. As well, it is a supremely British collection sounding like the quality pop of the legends of the 1960s, Dusty Springfield, Petula Clark, (if you want a more recent reference point, although American, The Ravonettes are the nearest). This is a hard sound to master, but master it with finesse Jemma Willard does.

The title track, a metal influenced track from the depths of personal experience, with fuzzed out jaunty guitars and the choral hook of “Remember everything/My lips against your skin/My fingers through your hair/My kiss is my is my despair/My silent sacrifice”, evoking the sense of panic of a life collapsing in to some dramatic abyss. ‘Doubts’ is a more of a dreamy escape in to introspection and building of self confidence. Like all the great architecture, there is the bite and pizzazz of something more substantial than a 1960s office block, but this cannot be fitted in to a genre of building clichés, standing on its own, with its own sense of confidence.

‘Underground’ and ‘Fairytale’ are softer and more like ballads in form, but this does not stop the gutsy playing, in particular on ‘Underground’. ‘Fairytale’ is about some bad lover who always made Jemma feel like “a shadow of your sunlight”. Hopefully this track is not about her music career, it would be a shame to lose her as the very real talent of Jemma Willard deserves all the sunlight she can get.