With Blasphemy So Heartfelt

Album Review

Teenage singer/songwriter Jessica Lea Mayfield is the protégée of Dan Auerbach of the Black Keys, who engineered and produced this, her debut full-length, in addition to playing "guitar, organ, piano, drums and other instruments." From the sound of the tracks, he did all that playing in the form of overdubs, after recording Mayfield singing and accompanying herself on acoustic guitar. In song after song, she strums simple chords and sings in a matter-of-fact drawl that recalls Edie Brickell, if Brickell hadn't slept in a couple of days. If Mayfield has lost sleep, it's because she (or the narrator who sings the songs) has romantic problems. Each song is sung by an "I" to a "you" with whom she is obsessed and who, for the most part, doesn't seem to be performing satisfactorily as a romantic partner. Not that the singer is entirely consistent in her attitude. Sometimes she expresses devotion, sometimes recrimination. "I'll talk to whoever I God-damned wanna," she tells her boyfriend in "We've Never Lied" (the song, by the way, makes it clear that they have), only to complain in "Call Me," "I spent the whole night by myself wondering who you talk to." If all of these songs are intended to represent a single relationship, it's certainly a complicated one.