Jane Herships - The Home Record

New album from artist formerly known as Spider, The Home Record, released Friday 28th February

Jane Herships has shed her alias, and has made a highly personal album entitled The Home Record; away from her alter ego of Spider she has crafted a collection of songs that are both personal yet universal, an artist rebuilding a persona in public by baring her soul to all to hear.

Opening track 'Resembling the Neighbors' sets her stall out with this wistful ballad that is tuneful, soulful and yet full of the undercurrent of more to it than on the surface.

While the songs she would write with Spider and as bassist of Teen would concentrate on the sound, this series of songs are all about falling in and out of love.

Lead single 'Best Friends' something that harkens back to late 1980s feel bad ballads, is about breaking up with someone you considered your best friend, the first person you would tell anything to anyone and in this instance who do you talk to.  This is a notion you are sure songwriters have considered before without as much success as Herships has conveyed.

This is followed up by the gorgeous 'Caroline' a track about a friend who has gone off the radar; this wistfulness of the album as a whole makes this album a great companion piece to Annie Hart's A Softer Offering that was reviewed earlier this year.

Both albums are kindred cousins from the Twin Peaks album, this music is both hypnotic yet enticing to the layman ear, music to share and rejoice in the fact that such good music is being produced.

'Small Town Girls' is one of the more jangly songs but the message is that the more things change, the more they stay the same and you can spread your wings and leave a town but those things you remember will remain.

Best single off the album is final track 'Scott Carpenter' a love letter to the eponymous astronaut whose thirst for knowledge brought him to prominence bringing wonder to the masses, by being inspired by him, Herships hopes to inspire others.  The song also has a whimsical but beautiful video directed by Arielle Sarnoff to boot.

For fans of Joni Mitchell, Iron and Wine and Fleet Foxes, this is an album that will ear worm its way into your consciousness in this most tumultuous of years.

The Home Record is available from Jane Herships' bandcamp website.

My thanks to One Beat PR for the review opportunity.