Summer is over. Autumn is here. At the slightest provocation, aka a gentle breeze, crispy leaves—red, orange, yellow, brown, and even a few still clinging to green—somersault from the legion of trees in our neighborhood. It’s almost as if they’re dancing on air, swirling and twirling like leafy Deadheads one moment and breaking into the Watusi or Mashed Potato the next. They rarely stick the landing, however. Instead, they stumble and tumble across the lawn and sidewalk, woozy and boozy despite only, ever, drinking water. It’s a beautiful sight.
Bye Bye Jackie seems an appropriate soundtrack for this time of year, when—here in the northern hemisphere—days grow short, the temperature drops, and regrets, repentance and second thoughts loom large. As alt.rock guitarist and songwriter Laura-Mary Carter—best known for her work with the UK-based Blood Red Shoes—sings on “Sometimes I Fall,” the leadoff track on this, her full-length solo debut, “You were my baby/I was your angel/But something just changed like that/And you weren’t able/Waves of confusion/I tried to dislike you/But now as were losing touch/Did it mean all that much?” It’s a moody number, as are the songs that follow, sounding a bit like the Velvet Underground produced by Phil Spector. Echo flows from the speakers like a low-lying fog.
It’s a dreamy and unseemly affair, heartbreak—that’s the album’s overriding theme. “Four Letter Words” lays blame where it belongs, on the one who walked out, while “Keep Sweet” borrows its title from the FLDS, which believes women should bow to their husbands: “Keep sweet/Is what they’re telling to me to be/It’s not easy/Keep sweet/What if I disagree/Even if I really see/why you can’t be with me.”
As she explains in the press release, “This is a farewell in stereo—to fading faces, busted dreams, and plastic flowers that never wilt. I bet it all on Jackie. Jackie lost.”
“June Gloom,” which I spotlighted last month, delves into the unpredictable nature of sadness, which sometimes wells up when we least expect it. “I’ll Laugh About It (in Good Time),” for its part, offers some perspective on the failed romance that (apparently) inspired the album; time may not heal a broken heart, but it will mend it enough for us to mine some black humor from the predicament. “Tell Me You’re Sorry” ups the rock quotient, with Carter’s guitar arcing through the song, while she ponders the state of her relationship. The contemplation continues with “Elvis Widow,” while “Comets” navigates the gravitational forces at play in her galaxy: “Babe, I’m not a saint neither a toy/And babe I’m not okay with being ignored.”
The album closes with twin epiphanies, “Who Are You Foolin’” and the title track, both of which find Carter closing the book on the relationship in question. The former explores how her partner presented an incomplete picture of their true self, while the latter bids them a bitter adieu: “Pointless/Undressing a rear view/But I do/Wish that I’d not met you.”
In short, Bye Bye Jackie unreels much like an old-school film noir. Its scenes are cloaked in shadows, with the claustrophobia further accented by oblique angles and cynicism. As with those classic (and not-so-classic) movies, however, the ambiguity pulls us in; these are mesmerizing songs, all. To shift metaphors and return to the lede, autumn is often equated with death and dying—yet remains a beloved time of year. There’s beauty in catharsis. Such is the case here.
The Old Grey Cat 