Jade Imagine

Three years on from debut album ‘Basic Love’, Melbourne, ‘Stralia trio Jade Imagine (Jade McInally, Tim Harvey, Madeline Lo-Booth with guesting drummer Marcel Tussie (Stella Donnely, Rolling Blackouts C.F) return with infectious poptimism and crysatll-indie on ‘Cold Memory’.

This is an album that posits the (de)pressing concerns of: in an increasingly seemingly ‘connected’ sphere, where technology tricks us into perceiving we inhabit one big Marshall McLuhanesque ‘global village’ what price human emotions, tactile thoughts and the giddy feeling of ‘real’ communion? The ideas of spaces, boundaries and zones fluctuating between real and the imagined, experienced and filtered are permanently in flux.

Lavishly built around these themes of connection (dis-/mis-/re-) and sixth-sensory waves of communication herein lie ten songs that encompass laidback bliss-pop, George Harrison-like finger-pickin’ linger-stickin’, slack-conic Laurel Canyon narrativising, simply a synthier masterclass apart.

McInally’s reassuring timbre maintains its measure throughout, never a need to raise (or lower) the tone. Soothing sayings, unrushed utterances, hushed declarations.

‘Guess we’ll just wait’ is a beatific Beatlesesque wah-wah workout, an elemental mind gameplay, a mellow mantra to the inner-self to … bide your time … eyes and ears wide open, timed and primed.

‘Home’ and ‘Get Light’ evoke the late, great, lemme-tell-you-a-story, Dory Previn, cracked, crackled, croaked catch-throat theatrics, fractured, phrasing, denounced enunciations, psychic perambulations. Words can only express so ‘much’, cues are read and misread, meanings lost in translation.

The titular ‘Cold Memory’ is a melodic melancholic masterpiece. ‘Grow taller’ features Nile ‘Son of Johnny’ Marr, the apple not falling too far from the tree as together the ensemble craft a Smithsonian soundscape. Vacillating mildly … as you ask …

This wonderful album articulates how fundamental it is to wear your art on your sleeve.