eMusic Review 0
12.21.11
Diving right into the depths of despair
2011 | Label: Nonesuch
Many a memorable album has been sparked by heartbreak, and Jessica Lea Mayfield dives right in to the depths of despair. “The only time I miss you is every single day,” she laments in the aptly named “Our Hearts Are Wrong,” even if she if she knows it was the right call: “I ain’t gonna change for nobody at all,” she declares on the cathartic “Run Myself Into the Ground.” Musically, Mayfield plays it cool throughout; producer Dan Auerbach of the Black Keys augments her haunting, comely voice with washes of moody guitar and, on occasion, offbeat keyboard riffs or intriguing rhythms. The antidote is “Blue Skies Again,” the album’s poppiest track, buoyed by a reassurance that “all hearts will mend.”
