"Jessica Pratt sings in a voice as gentle as unspun wool, but her stories feel deeply rooted, like they were born from a collective subconscious to reveal fundamental truths about human longing. Experimental pop musician Asher White gets at similarly heady ideas: leaving your city to seek reinvention, wondering whether your fate is predetermined. But where Pratt works primarily in the folk tradition, White's approach is decidedly contemporary, drawing from Palberta and 100 gecs ' internet-laden glitchiness."
"As timeless as Pratt's songs have always been, she's followed a clear evolution since 2012's self-titled debut that's led her to glimmering pop songs like 2015's "Back Baby" and the haunted bossa nova of 2024's "By Hook or by Crook." It makes sense that an artist as dynamic and freewheeling as White would be drawn to revisit Pratt's earliest work, when these ideas were first taking shape."
"White fell in love with Jessica Pratt on the cusp of her 21st birthday, walking the streets of Providence in the blistering cold. Fittingly, there's a fluorescent sense of momentum to her renditions. Pratt's "Night Faces" is a song of remembrance. The guitar twinkles like the notes from a grandparent's music box, and Pratt elongates her words until they feel like a chant or a spell."
Jessica Pratt's singing is delicate and deeply rooted, conveying themes of longing that feel collectively resonant. Asher White approaches similar existential ideas through a contemporary experimental pop lens influenced by Palberta and 100 gecs' glitchiness. Pratt's work has evolved since her 2012 debut toward brighter pop and haunted bossa nova touches by 2024. White created a track-by-track cover of Pratt's early recordings, treating each song like an American standard and embracing spontaneity and jubilance. White's versions add percussion, chugging bass, and colorful guitar lines, bringing momentum and constructed commotion to Pratt's original intimacy.
Read at Pitchfork
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