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Jess Ribeiro: Summer of Love review – a balm for anxious times


With expansive, experimental instrumentation, the Melbourne musician’s fourth album records our contemporary chaos – and finds a glimmer of hope

On opener Maybe if I Wore Sunglasses Inside I Won’t Feel Tired, Ribeiro shares Chadwick’s raw despair; her vocals almost take on a monotone against sparse piano backing. Bucolic images flood the tracks Everything is Now, The Trees and Me, and the gentle, largely acoustic love song Paradise, all pondering how nature can become a salve for our contemporary anxiety. Closing track Howl is introduced over pulsing keys before growing to include choral accompaniment, then blooming into a two-minute instrumental outro: those discordant strings and tremolos again, this time as a hushed echo.

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Jess Ribeiro