Audiopile Review: With a helping hand from Diego Herrera (aka Suzanne Kraft), Aiden Ayers, fellow Pender Street Stepper Liam Butler and official Mood Hut saxophonist Linda Fox, Jack J doubles down on the sun-kissed sophisticated pop of his debut with a followup that just might best it. Across Blue Desert there is a n new confidence in Jutson’s vocals, which are pushed a littler further up in the mix and come through sharper on this go around. There’s also a notable move away from the fragile Arthur Russell-esque speak-sing of the debut as he further refines an intimate approach that perfectly compliments the pillowy atmosphere that floats through the album. Musically, it’s even more ambitious, touching on a dizzying array of reference points that reach back decades, collated by a talented songwriter with a deep knowledge of the dustier corners of pop history. Blue Desert is practically spinning with its collage-like approach, it’s core of buoyant AOR, peppy ‘80s synth pop and sophisticated studio soul is refracted through a clouded lens of fourth world ambience and Balearic romance, skewing it all leftward in his own indelible way. There are so many standout tracks that it’s tough to choose a favourite—from the meticulously produced shimmering hypnagogic-groove of album opener “Wrong Again”, to the two-minute vocal-pop singalong of “At My Door”, and down to the Ronald Langestraat-esque bedroom-wave of “Falling Down A Well”, Blue Desert is bursting at the seams with so many fresh, hooky earworms that it easily proves that Opening The Door was no fluke. Indeed, it was a hint at bigger things to come.

Just a little over two years since the release of his debut album Opening the Door, Jack re-emgerges with a new full length album. On Blue Desert, the Australian-born Vancouver-based multi-instrumentalist, singer, songwriter and producer wades deeper into the stylistically prismatic pool of his own creation: melancholy dub-funk, jangling psychedelia, moon-burnt sophisti-pop and stained glass folk mutations float freely together.

Just a little over two years since the release of his debut album Opening the Door, Jack re-emgerges with a new full length album. On Blue Desert, the Australian-born Vancouver-based multi-instrumentalist, singer, songwriter and producer wades deeper into the stylistically prismatic pool of his own creation: melancholy dub-funk, jangling psychedelia, moon-burnt sophisti-pop and stained glass folk mutations float freely together.

Entirely self-produced at Mood Hut Studios in Chinatown, Vancouver between 2022 and 2024, the album picks up where Opening the Door left off; the songwriting concise and refined, the voice front and centre on almost every song, the pensive mood irresistible and dense.

The apparently effortless melodic interplay of voice, guitar, synthesizers and bass that Jack is well known for is ever present but despite the clear-eyed harmonies and energetic rhythms there is a shadow that quietly haunts the album. The lyrical buoyancy of his early EPs and even some of the more explicitly sunburnt instrumental moments of his last record have continued to fade and peel like paint. Regret, remorse and melancholy are woven into almost every turn of phrase; the self-deprecating longing of Tracey Thorn and Sade Adu can be heard alongside the plaintive echos of Mark Hollis and Arthur Russell. The Mood Hut Records founder and NTS host digs deeper in all the directions that he only brushed upon on Opening the Door, creating a kaleidoscopic index of his omnivorous listening habits: from Underworld to Kate Bush, Disco Inferno to Bryan Ferry, Julian Cope to Arthur Verocai.

The LP will be released on Jack’s own Mood Hut Records on November 1st and will be followed by a live tour in the UK and Europe in November and December, featuring a string of dates opening for revered Los Angeles artist Jessica Pratt.