Jessica Bailiff / Pitchfork 7.5 for "At The Down Turned Jagged Rim of The Sky"

Jessica Bailiff is no stranger to us here at CTD.  We've been hawking her wares for some time now.  Imagine the pleasantries that filled the office here this morning when we noticed that Pitchfork have issued her newest Kranky LP/CD, At The Down-Turned Jagged Rim of The Sky, a 7.5 rating.  

"At the Down-Turned Jagged Rim of the Sky, her first full-length since 2006, is on the one hand just another Jessica Bailiff album, suffused with her cool, half-chanted singing and plenty of sonic murk. But it's also quite unlike anything she's done before. It's focused, without the lengthy experiments, and the flow of the album is coherent. Odd Nosdam's mixing adds a subtle punch, and her songs sometimes bring to mind New Zealand experimentalist Graeme Jefferies of the Cakekitchen, offering a specific vision of hooks, delivery, and fuzz."

"There's a clear sense of arrangement and precision throughout. Often there's no overt variation or change in a song, but when subtle changes do emerge after careful listening, you get a sense of how her understated touch creates a strong impact. Bringing scope and space to a more intimate level, the miniature epic 'This is Real' demonstrates the virtues of the slow build and Bailiff's careful placement: repeated keyboard parts are matched by guitars, then voices take the place of the guitars as new guitars are added into the background. It feels like sweeping exultance, a sigh, and the title's reach for something grounded."