Jaye Jayle is effectively the solo project of Evan Patterson, and Don’t Let Your Love Life Get You Down (Pelagic Records) is his first offering since his divorce from Emma Ruth Rundle — a topic which seems to have informed both the title and the content of this new record.
On this album, Patterson digs perhaps further than ever before into his traditional influences such as gospel and delta blues. This can most obviously be heard flowing through the rich and rootsy vocal harmonies that occupy so much of the record. Right from the meditative and hopeful album opener ‘Warm Blood and Honey’ the songs are led by layers of earthy singing that have a timeless quality.
Patterson speaks of finding “peace in being accepting of the change” in his life circumstances, and there is undoubtedly a kind of sombre tranquillity pervading the tracks. That’s not to say that the music isn’t often dark or unsettling — as demonstrated by the drip-feed of brooding tension that is ‘Tell Me Live’, for example. But this time around there is a slow-burning, hypnotic feel throughout that makes the songs feel as though they float and glide along with grace and ease.
Musically, bluesy guitar passages and austere drums often predominate, but there are also some more experimental forays into dreamy synth-led psychedelia, such as the strangely uplifting melancholy of ‘Waiting for the Life’.
Of course, Patterson’s whiskey-soaked baritone voice is central, and it sounds as ominous and lovelorn as ever. He is also assisted in places by Will Oldham (aka Bonnie “Prince” Billy), who takes the lead on the swirling apocalyptic psych-jazz dirge of final track ‘When We Are Dogs’. On the same track, Chelsea Wolfe and ERR collaborator Patrick Shiroishi also provides masterfully dark saxophone textures.
Don’t Let Your Love Life Get You Down seems to be something of a distillation of all of Jaye Jayle’s previous output. Incorporating post-rock textures, Tom Waits-esque dark country-tinged songwriting, and elements of the electronic soundscapes that 2020’s Prisyn comprised. And while this album is largely characterised by immersive atmospheres, it nevertheless incorporates some catchy hooks — the repeated refrain of the album title within ‘Black Diamonds and Bad Apples’ being a prime example.
Patterson talks of wanting the songs here to feel “devastatingly hopeful”, and it’s hard not to conclude that this collection is successful in that aim. Intensity and restraint, as well as pain and redemption, are swirled together beautifully to create a potent but easy-flowing sonic blend that is as steeped in Americana as it is of the avant-garde.
Mention should also be made of another Chelsea Wolfe collaborator, Ben Chisholm, who mixed the record and who Patterson describes as “the secret member of the band at this point”, praising his use of “sonic colour” as being “plush, like a velvet landscape”.
Don’t Let Your Love Life Get You Down is surely one of Jaye Jayle’s strongest albums — forlorn yet intoxicating, troubled yet soothing — and it certainly offers a glimpse into the “place of unconditional understanding and peace” that Patterson speaks of having found in the face of his recent life difficulties. This is a brilliantly executed and emotionally powerful work centred around deliverance from darkness towards transcendence.
Buy the album here:
https://listen.pelagic-records.com/jayejayle
8 / 10
DUNCAN EVANS