Wallice - The Jester

Over the past four years and three EPs, Los Angeles native Wallice has continued to grow as a creatively intriguing prospect, documenting the early 20s female experience with scuzzy guitars and a wry wink. It’s with her debut full-length ‘The Jester’, though, that her true talents are fully revealed. Eschewing virality in favour of something ambitious and broad in scope, the album’s fourteen tracks hang around a conceptualised tale of the titular jester, in what’s a gloriously witty - and sometimes meta - metaphor of young artists today. ‘The Opener’ is at once heartbreaking and exhilarating in its deadpan delivery (“I’m just the opener / Talk right over me,” she croons), while the country swagger of ‘Hurry Babe’ amps up the song’s cautionary tale, as provoked by our narrator’s hectic schedule (“I know I should slow down but I’m in a rush”). Sonically, too, the record runs the gamut of genre, with the fidgety guitars of Albert Hammond Jr adding a piercing indie rock edge to ‘Clown Like Me’ before ‘Manipulate’ later leaps down a glitchy, almost-industrial rabbit hole. A captivating, gutsy debut that keeps listeners on their toes, ‘The Jester’ proves just how adept Wallice is at entertaining.