It’s 2024 and a group of teenagers have invited you to a picnic in the woods. Picked flowers are draped, flowering shrubs are gathered, nature’s idyll is absorbed horizontally. Long-haired boys in bell-bottoms and girls with ribbons and untamed manes walk hand in hand in a circle. In the middle, an angel with white-blonde curls and a doll’s face. Joining a cult has never been as tempting as in the music video for »World On A String«. The delicate angel in a velvety two-piece is Jessica Pratt, who returns five years after her hit album »Quiet Signs« with »Here in the Pitch«, revisiting the flower-power era of the 1960s.
Inspired by the baritone of Scott Walker or the theatricality of Judy Garland, there are unexpected nuances compared to the previous album. For example, the piano ballad »Empire Never Know« surprises with an unusually deep timbre, while the percussion in the opener or the bossa nova number »By Hook or by Crook« add an elegant twist. The overall impression remains as loungey as ever, the sound even more intimate than before. As mystical as ever, Pratt’s voice lures like the song of a siren, allowing no escape. The subtle unease is not without reason, as it was the dark stories of Californian cult leader Manson that inspired Pratt to make this album.
