The singer-songwriter and composer hailing from London, Tessa Rose Jackson is set to release her debut album under her own name, The Lighthouse, on January 23rd of 2026 after releasing music under the name “Someone” for several years. After working on projects like Life is Strange and Ginny & Georgia, The Lighthouse could hardly be a better project as a statement for reclaiming one’s own name.
Jackson opens the album with its title track, “The Lighthouse.” True to its name, the track opens with strings that ebb and flow to gently bring listeners into Jackson’s personal and intimate folk-sound. With the chorus repeating “I’ve been away,” the song’s central imagery represents a coming home in all forms: emotionally, physically, and sonically. The title track is followed by “The Man Who Wasn’t There,” an acoustic track, slightly unsettling in nature, the track opens with the slow and carefully articulate lines “big apple, polished red/ once tasty and never whole again.” The track embraces Jackson’s soundtrack roots with its suspense and its gradual introduction of an intense string section.
“The Bricks That Make the Building” is the album’s third track and offers a calming, acoustic sound. A track about smaller moments that build up into bigger experiences, and trying to look back on them fondly, the song provides a breath of relaxing reflection after a more intense track. “Dawn” follows, switching tunes once again into a much more pop sound than we’ve heard thus far. A song about reflecting on the actions of others rather than herself, with the lines of “Dawn” posing questions like “Did you play the game with loaded dice? / Do you see yourself through crooked eyes?” The subtly aggressive writing is expertly interwoven with a falsely optimistic beat and higher, floating harmonies.
The album’s recent single, “Built to Collide” combines a coming-of-age reflection on time spent with someone else and the calm motivation that comes with moving on. With Jackson’s now signature introspective lyricism, “Sometimes the best you’ve got is just making do with what you’re given” and “Don’t swerve the conversation/ lean into it,” this track leaves a positive sound and impact on the album. “Gently Now” follows. The seemingly simple guitar and stripped-down vocals of the album’s sixth track emphasize Jackson’s talents as a writer and performer, with her voice shining over the stripped-down sound.
Track seven, “When Your Time Comes,” uses its title to create an eerier sound, with lyrics like “Where are we gonna go when we die?” which questions the afterlife and Jackson’s own life while she’s living it. The harmonizing background vocals take the track to another level, as they do with multiple tracks on the album, adding suspense and emotion that could have so easily been overlooked. The theme of fear continues in the album’s next track, “Fear Bangs the Drum,” which ramps up the emotions from the previous track into an intense and all-encompassing brass interlude, making the sound almost take place in a whole other realm of story and emotion.
In “By Morning,” Jackson settles into a calm acceptance of her current situation, simmering down the previous tracks into something lighter, both sonically and in theme. Jackson sings one of the album’s standout lines in the track’s chorus: “I don’t think we’ll feel the way we feel at all/ By morning.” The optimistic acoustic sound carries through the beginning of “Grace Notes.” The tenth track continues to provide hit after hit of masterful lyrics, like “Time it ticks on/ Laid out like a song/ That you can only play once.” The song’s chorus: “Start to close with some grace notes” begin the journey of Jackson’s takeaways from the experiences chronicled through this album.
The album’s final stretch consists of “Wild Geese” and “Prizefighter,” where Jackson is “Armed with the future and the past,” thanking all of the memories that shaped her and ready to move forward into a new chapter. These final two tracks contain their own share of highlights: the muffled electric guitar interlude of “Wild Geese” and the line “Be your own prizefighter” among them. Jackson ends the final track with a motivating message to fight for yourself and make a life you love. Jackson decides the best way to move forward from all of her contemplations is to try to live a good life. The album’s hope is evident; shining through each track and ultimately being what’s left after the last track ends.
Jackson’s sound on this album is elaborate and innovative, with every track giving something new to consider. Tessa Rose Jackson’s The Lighthouse is available to stream January 23rd via Tiny Tiger Records. The album’s release will also coincide with the release of its accompanying documentary film and Jackson’s headline tour, which runs through March 2026.
