Homemaker, Jill Barber’s most recent record, has something very down to earth. She talks about the dishes to do, the passing of time, thinks back to the little words of love from her mother’s hand, thinks about love and the not insignificant symbol of the joint account, remembers her childhood dreams. There is nostalgia in the way she looks at the present, you can hear it. There is also a kind of appeasement.
“I may not influence others, may not be the best mother / Or a model wife / But I don’t need a pretty picture to know that I have a good life [traduction libre] “, she sings in Beautiful Lifewhere she evokes the smooth happiness that we gladly display on Instagram or elsewhere online.
Jill Barber sometimes gives the impression of pushing open doors with these new songs. Careful listening, however, allows you to taste the refinement with which she recounts her daily joys, but also their underside: the small sources of irritation, the suppressed bitterness, the impression of not being up to the task or the pressure of being like the others.
His veiled voice, sometimes too childish, can annoy in the long run, it’s true. His music once again anchored in contemporary folk and Americana after the pop momentum of Metaphora (2018) and the jazzy Between us (2020) are not very original either. Jill Barber lacks a bit of personality, but she more than makes up for it with the sharpness of her observations and knowing how to stroke the ear.
Folk/Americana
Homemaker
Jill Barber
Outside