If the hustle-and-bustle of the modern world is getting you down, there’s no better cure than the sound of an acoustic guitar: Julia Jacklin is just one of many indie folk artists making some of the comfiest music around. New record ‘The Gem’ is a startling bleak project, one that doesn’t shy away from themes of insecurity and isolation, but you might just miss them for how soothing these ten tracks can be. If anything, Jacklin’s warmth ends up working against her.

In spite of its title, ‘The Gem’ isn’t a very shiny record. Opener ‘Brand New’ may be a particularly standard note to kick things off on, but it nonetheless provides a good indication of just how cut-and-dry things are going to be this time around. The record is home to distant keyboard accompaniments and a host of solid drum patterns, but they feel pushed off to the side— what you’ll actually be listening to is the voice and the guitar parts of Jacklin herself, who’s unsurprisingly taking centre stage on a record plastered with her own face three times over. Outside of the climactic ending afforded to ‘Walk On Me,’ ‘The Gem’ isn’t a project that places much emphasis on arrangement: that indie folk intimacy is too essential to risk compromising.

The record had better get you emotionally invested— it does, don’t worry— because the sacrifices Jacklin is making here in service of her storytelling are rampant. Just as the singer confides her own sense of constriction on ‘If I Had The Hand Of God,’ so too does her music feel tied down to a very specific dynamic range: it could be an intentional choice, sure, but it would be a puzzling one when the music on ‘The Gem’ frequently fails to match its star’s intensity. Numbers like ‘You Turned On The Tap’ and ‘Real Life’ are so withdrawn as to become monotonous, weaponising Jacklin’s penchant for elegant simplicity against her— you can hear the intention behind stripping the instrumentation of ‘Angel Vision’ down to naught, but there just isn’t enough contrast to the rest of the album to truly catch you off guard. At times, ‘The Gem’ is a project that passes without a trace.

That’s not to say the record is devoid of musical charm, far from it: there’s an extreme amount of pleasantness in display here that makes this one of the easiest listens of the year, even if it is to a fault. Jacklin herself has a lovely voice, though it does sound like she frequently holds back from letting loose at full capacity— her steady cadence lends itself well to the catchy indie rock of ‘The Hardest Thing’ and ‘Get Away From Me (I Think I’ll Love You Soon),’ both of which act as relative upswings in energy for the project. ‘The Gem’ isn’t out to impress on the face of it, but neither is it ever in risk of disappointing you. A plethora of superb melodies and layered harmonies are what allows the infectious ‘God Sometimes’ and the sweet closer ‘I Wish’ to operate as successfully as they do.

The area Jacklin’s character comes through most in is in her lyrics, which are the real draw the rest of ‘The Gem’ is built around: the extreme simplicity of ‘You Turned On The Tap’ is clearly intended to highlight the singer’s metaphors exploring isolation and separation, even if these words would probably feel more at home soundtracked by the grandiose eccentricity of Lingua Ignota. These ten songs are devoted to images of the mundane, with potted plants, household appliances and the struggles of everyday life becoming the lens through which Jacklin bares her soul for the world— ‘Real Life,’ in particular, would be funny if its resignation weren’t so palpable.

“Had a dream that I watered your plants

It felt like real life

Didn't do it, I didn't even try

Now all your plants have died”

A fear of abandonment becomes a cornerstone theme of the album, one we return to again and again on ‘The Hardest Thing,’ ‘Get Away From Me (I Think I’ll Love You Soon)’ and ‘I Wish,’ and it’s not an idea that gets sugar-coated or stepped around. ‘The Gem’ presents Jacklin as a cautious figure, a label she all-but embraces on ‘If I Had The Hand Of God,’ but with a pen in her hand, she finally comes into her own— if anything, the increased volume of ‘Walk On Me’ is more-or-less drowned out by its stark approach to lyricism, which cuts through the soft mix every single time. The real pleasantness at the heart of this album is in the catharsis these words might afford you, even if the singer herself isn’t bringing much hope or happiness on her end.

“The same time every day

When the band begins to play

I say, ‘I know this song’

You say, ‘Everybody knows this one’

So why am I the only person singing along?”

‘The Gem’ is a good album, but it’s also an ungodly frustrating one. These ten songs are rife with heartbreaking material, but it all gets buried under an overly safe indie folk guise that satisfies more than it impresses. Julia Jacklin has proven herself to be an artist worth watching with this one— she’s certainly quite the storyteller, you have to give her that much— but she’s really only hinting at her potential. If she can break through that pleasant veneer, the real magic will come shining through.