LA singer-songwriter Jesse Jo Stark drops haunting EP A Pretty Place To Fall Apart, a four-track collection of tracks that build from soft hurt to bold anguish in quick and seamless succession. With a cinematic quality that sees it double as the soundtrack for coming-of-age Channel 4 drama Fracture, in which Stark stars, the EP is emotive and visceral, a common thread of Stark’s powerful vocals holding together a soundscape that swings smoothly yet wildly between rock, punk and country.
Opening with melodic touch of blues number “Not Your Little Baby Anymore,”written by Stark alongside Neighborhood’s Jesse Rutherford, the song writing in A Pretty Place To Fall Apart immediately brings to light themes of reflection, compromise and growth backdropped against the struggles of Stark’s character Mya. With music at its centre, the five-episode series works in tandem with the EP to weave a painfully relatable narrative, taking us through Mya’s story as a young musician struggling to find her voice and place in the world.
Where the title track brings intensity with its anthemic rock ballad stylings, brought to life with nuances of pain as she sings about getting in the way of her own happiness, Stark’s take on her 2018 single “Fire of Love” establishes her growth as a singer taking her sultry vocals and injecting a polished gentleness to it. A hyper-sensitive journey that begins, takes us on a roller coaster of emotions and quickly falling away into the mournful tones of Cardigans’ cover “My Favourite Game.”
Gritty yet cushioned against lush instrumentals, A Pretty Place To Fall Apart, lays down a path that leads Stark to her latest venture as an actress, notes of vulnerability grounding the dream-like musicality she showcases. With the power of her latest music, the multi-talented artist who has previously been described by her impressive familial relationships comes into her own, her genre-hopping sensibilities establishing a strong and authentic identity of her own in music.
