jasmine.4.t - You Are The Morning

That jasmine.4.t should be part of the Phoebe Bridgers cinematic universe is arguably the most glaringly obvious facet of debut album ‘You Are The Morning’. A record brimming with folksy warmth and vivid storytelling, with song structures that build on themselves so smartly as to belie their frequently six-minute-plus length, it brings the phrase ‘match made in heaven’ in mind - particular considering that, as well as releasing through Saddest Factory, these tracks were also produced by Phoebe and her boygenius comrades Lucy Dacus and Julien Baker. More surprisingly, given the record’s sound, is that the experiences that fed into it came via Bristol and Manchester. It’s only the title of ‘Guy Fawkes Tesco Dissociation’ – a song which veers wonderfully into slacker rock territory over an expansive nine minutes – that gives Jasmine’s game away. Away from comparisons to her collaborators’ work, the wonky ‘90s indie of The Flaming Lips and Pavement is heard on ‘Tall Girl’; there’s a Bon Iver softness to ‘Roan’, while the majestic percussion of ‘Breaking In Reverse’ is pretty much Wall of Sound level in both tone and task. This alone makes for a wholly enjoyable record, but perhaps remarkably - at least in a current context - it all accompanies lyrics written around and about Jasmine’s coming out and transition. ‘You Are The Morning’ is filled with huge amounts of positivity that shines on the gang vocals which repeat the refrain “The elephant / Is in the room” on ‘Elephant’; the “You deserve much better” that permeates the title track; even closer ‘Woman’, on which she is joined by the Trans Chorus of Los Angeles, may be plaintive at points but it’s never sad. In ‘Best Friend’s House’, Jasmine sings of finding solace “In my best friend’s house / In my best friend’s bed / With the curtains closed”, and it’s perhaps this line which sums up the record best, as a safe sonic cocoon.