Kings Place, London
For another year, the monolithic force of Pitchfork's brand sweeps through the main European hotspots: Paris, Berlin and London. With their renowned alt-music picks for showcasing, this year proved no different: the capital crammed two such spellbinding, folk-inspired singer-songwriters into its halls for a day of heart-wrenching, love-inspired performances.
Joanna Sternberg: “It’s like I’m writing my diary to you.”
Rarely has such palpable sympathy been felt for an artist on an afternoon such as this. Swept in a tailwind of emotions, New York City’s latest product from its folk-centric scene, Joanna Sternberg, revises and recites her debut material wrung from a heart-wrenching will to survive. Alone at the grand piano, Sternberg’s physical form remains tightly hunched yet cloaked in despair as such cries resonate through the weeping audience (“Unworthy of love / They did not love me / I’ve been hurting just like you”). Delving into her drug-induced past on ‘This Is Not Who I Want to Be’, a sharp inner-critique and loneliness play out in a broodingly disparaging way, intimately noting the friction between love and self-love (“This is not who I want to be…I am slowly killing me”).
Throughout the beginning of Sternberg’s set, however, a taught anxiety arrests her on-stage before snapping amidst her second track, ‘I’ve Got Me’, courtesy of an unplanned, guitar-masked mistake. “I’ve finally made a mistake!”, she exclaims to the crowd, followed by a subsequent deep inhalation which noticeably calms the stage fright jitters. Such calmness invariably brings to life her latest LP, I’ve Got Me, which warrants a more self-supportive, affirmative persona: one which spares no punches toward former lovers who do wrong (“You’ll play with one till you’re bored and through / ‘Cause people are toys to you”). From the sharpness of Janis Joplin, to the uniquely wearied vocals a-la Elliott Smith, Daniel Johnston and Mount Eerie; Sternberg similarly pierces with such arresting honesty and clarity spewed from the well-worn pages of her diary.
Layered amongst such influences, including traditional Irish folklore tunes, the singer-songwriter explores the impermeable depths of this stoic genre on her impressive sophomore record, thrashing through ‘I Will Be With You’s latter half; slowing down to a foreboding culmination at the set’s closer, ‘The Song’ (“Maybe someday, when my pain goes away / I will get up and get out, out and get free”). One could never take for granted the sheer breadth of Sternberg's influences and inspirations seething through her current repertoire, an enticing conglomeration which makes her arresting yet so appealing.
For this afternoon’s matinee performance, the capital witnessed a brilliantly heartfelt, intimate, insightful, witty and inspiring set from NYC’s latest folk prodigy. Sternberg proves herself as someone with raw prowess, relatability unlike many, and a reaper of refuge for those heartbroken and looking for solace.
7.5/10
Kara Jackson: “Continuing the theme of sarcasm…”
Poised rigidly on stage, the young singer-songwriter spouts her sarcastic skepticism on love’s dubious forces: “It’s hard to have patience when you’re waiting on luck, like a postal truck”, concluding “Isn’t that just love? A will to destruct.” Such are usually the sounds of songwriters in years gone by, carrying an unctuous wealth of experience - whether it be Bob Dylan’s wistful blues, Patti Smith’s heart-wrenching conviction or Joni Mitchell’s lost love; Kara Jackson seamlessly carries this at the tender age of 24. From turning to whiskey on ‘Liquor’ (“Can’t buy love so I bought liquor / Whiskey always wets the winner”) or shunning those to therapy on ‘Therapy’ (“He wants me, he wants therapy”), tonight’s audience remain equally poised in their seats, eagerly listening to every sage piece of warning and advice from today’s spokesperson of modern love.
The galvanising forces of lost love invariably play their part through most of Jackson’s recital of her spellbinding debut LP, Why Does the Earth Give Us People to Love?, conceding a more optimistic tone surrounding tracks such as ‘Pawnshop’: “I like the idea that you can become renewed by someone else.” Yet this isn’t the be all. ‘Free’s mesmeric latter half soars through an ethereal self-affirming abyss, warped by the singer’s contralto range as we’re soon transcended into a blues-driven, self-validating hit, ‘Dickhead Blues’. “I am pretty top-notch” rings with a self-righteous conviction seldom heard in today’s singer-songwriter realms, supported by the illustriously wry persona of Jackson, nonchalantly offering tidbits of advice and backstory to her songwriting material throughout her set.
Searing through a myriad of tonalities, conceptions and sarcasm, Kara Jackson pierces with a voice (and guitar) like no other. Amissed extra instrumentation from the aforementioned record proved evident tonight, however, Jackson remained unfazed, stoic and well beyond her years in such modern folk songwriting. Rooted motionless throughout, the singer-songwriter remained resounding in her vocal prowess: unique and inimitable; akin to the likes of Nina Simone or (covered tonight) Karen Dalton. The walls of Kings Place shall resonate this for a while to come, undoubtedly the residual mark of an indelible artist.
8.5/10
Joanna Sternberg's latest LP, I've Got Me, is out now via Fat Possum Records and can be found here.
Kara Jackson's latest LP, Why Does the Earth Give Us People to Love?, is out now via September Recordings and can be found below.
Photos are courtesy of Matt Lief Anderson whose work can be found here.
Tickets for next year's Pitchfork Music Festival London can be found on the website here.