Music
On Your Own Love Again
West Coast folkie plays tricks with your heart, and the clock
Jessica Pratt’s songs almost seem to bend time to her will. The West Coast folk singer-guitarist doesn’t need much more than her delicately played nylon-string guitar and mezzo-soprano voice to give her second album an uncanny impact. Pratt’s jazz-steeped singing and rich guitar harmonies can recall early Joni Mitchell, or a nimble, less overbearing twist on the psychedelic folk of 21st-century artists like Joanna Newsom. “Your love is just a myth I devised,” she sings on “Back, Baby,” a breezy tune about a broken relationship. On “Jacquelyn in the Background,” another highlight, she slows the tape down, letting the music melt into strange – and strangely moving – new shapes.