Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Where others may feel the small drops of rain on a spring day, the sensitive feel the lashing of a hurricane in autumn; this is the love and the penance that the complex emotional readers find when they are presented with an overload of sensation, when they are granted access to an innermost desire or sometimes passing thought, the rain is not an inconvenience, it is a flood of reaction that is yours to own completely. There is the rub, to answer in the positive when examined, Yours Aye.
To be taken on an emotional journey in the times we live in is perhaps not the hardest way to ponder our response of fight or flight to the question at hand, and yet it surely depends in who is the one posing the query, is it a master interrogator or a problem solver, an inquisitor, or the smile of those wishing to find resolution.
Jill Jackson’s sensitivity is in no doubt, a party to the resolution, a woman, a performer who is unafraid of tackling the subjects of the heart, and whose vocals sing with joy and expression at every given moment.
In Ms. Jackson’s latest album, Yours Aye, the demonstration of care is palpable, it breathes of its own accord, and the pleasure within is always on show, and even in the darkest recesses of communication between musician/songwriter/lyricist and that of the affected listener, those sombre moments of reflection are heralded with grace and fulfilment.
As the album releases the aural pheromones of love, honour, hope, and the trappings of fear and despair at the world we live in, across tracks such as I Wouldn’t Do That, Baby Chicken, Sweeter Than Honey, Lay You Down, Hurt, and the album title track, Yours Aye, so Jill Jackson naturally joins Americana charm and Scottish industry and sweet memory together in a union that is a fluent, fluid, and as strong as her own indomitable character.
Yours Aye is an album of description, of observation, one that has spent its time nurturing the healing process that is evident in the performance; Jill Jackson has returned armed with rhythm and her always on show class, and once you hear it, you will not be able to resist playing it again.
Jill Jackson releases Yours Aye on Friday 6th May.
Ian D. Hall