Jackie West: Silent Century

"West builds most of the songs around a single repeated chord, strummed high up on the neck. Her band populates the arrangement with everything else she needs-bass licks, chord changes, dynamic surges-while West sends her voice into the song's darkened corners and curls her mind around whichever odd idea grips her."

"The alluring songs on Silent Century throw off different hazily familiar shapes every time I listen: Mazzy Star, Waxahatchee, Hand Habits, Faye Webster, Aldous Harding, Slowdive -anything dreamy and dilated with a pinprick at its center. The pinprick, in West's case, arrives via her lyrics, which consistently lob compelling insights into the songs' squall and shimmer like slowly hurtling space junk."

""I sell my body for amazing prices/It's easier than climbing the staircase or taking off my shirt," she sings on the title track. Does this line, devoid of context, make sense? No, it doesn't. But imagine if it floated your way from across a crowded room. Would you not feel compelled to follow this odd remark to its source, to discover more about the mind that generated it?"

Jackie West is a singer-songwriter part of an indie rock community orbiting New York City and upstate towns. Her second album, Silent Century, showcases her distinctive approach: building songs around single repeated chords while her band adds bass, chord changes, and dynamic elements. Collaborators include Dan Knishkowy on guitar, Katie Von Schleicher on synth and vocals, and Nate Mendelsohn on saxophone. West's music evokes artists like Mazzy Star, Waxahatchee, and Faye Webster—dreamy and expansive with sharp lyrical centers. Her lyrics are deliberately cryptic and compelling, drawing listeners into her unconventional perspective. She merges her voice with droning guitar, creating immersive soundscapes that reward close attention.

Read at Pitchfork