Album Review: Julia Jacklin’s “Don’t Let The Kids Win” Will Leave You Breathless
With guitar-driven melodies, Julia Jacklin’s Don’t Let The Kids Win feels like a giant, musical “coming of age” tale that reminds listener’s of the classic opuses that made Dylan iconic. Like Dylan, Jacklin uses her songs as woeful tales or whims and warnings on how to best treat yourself, your lover, and, at times, the world. The entire record is stunning in its vulnerable observations of what it means to “grow up”. Yet, for Julia, growing up is not about growing older or even some mystical sense of highness. Growing up is a settlement into your humanity, and an acceptance that, maybe, you never meet the “best version” of you because that version is ever-changing. Hence, she captures the frustration and freedom of knowing that your best will always be yet to come. This notion is what makes Don’t Let The Kids Win surpass being a musical gem into a spiritual one.
Jacklin’s record is filled with the hope and melancholy every human being undergoes as he or she tries to figure out the mysteries of their own life. Why are we here? What are we doing for ourselves? What does the future hold that past did not? Hence, the album can make you smile or cry, but, no matter what, it makes you wonder, which is why I find it so special. I love that Jacklin created a record where each song feels like a page-turned in her diary. She could be frenetic with emotions, guitar strums, and resilience as in “Coming of Age” or she could be quiet, slightly broken, and wondering how to pick up the pieces of another heartbreak, “Don’t Let The Kids Win”. In addition, Jacklin has the starry voice to summon the pensiveness that this album stirs.
Don’t Let The Kids Win is like a series of thoughts written over pure folk-rock. There are splashes of blues that come, not necessarily from the genre, but Jacklin’s open wounds at not always making the best decisions for her heart. Every person can understand how bad it feels to know, that despite the hurt caused to you by another, you played role in offering your heart to easily to the ones that crossed your path. Fans of folk-rock will be elated to have a record that is the essence of this genre in sound and sentiment. Moreover, people in need of an artist that “gets them”, and feels free at singing that sometimes she is not free at all will love Julia Jacklin. She is so relatable in her human struggles that no one would toss a stone at her glass house because, frankly, they have live in it, as well.
Like my recent review of MC Chris Is Dreaming, Julia Jacklin’s Don’t Let The Kids Win is not really about a “favorite track”, which is why I did not add that section to this review. This album supersedes favor because each song will hold a different appeal to a person depending on their mood or where they are spiritually. Some will get the sense of confusion and numbness Jacklin sultrily broods in “Same Airport, Different Man”or they will understand the clash of stardust dreams with earthbound realities in “L.A. Dream”. Either Way, everyone will love this album, and will feel its uniqueness at being able to captivate you through the many emotional rides your life has and will take, Julia Jacklin’s Don’t Let The Kids Win comes out October 7. For more information on Jacklin or to buy this record Click Here.
