- Classic sounds pervade the new EP from Melbourne singer-songwriter Feign Jima. The project of Jamie-Lee Fanning is relaxed in its pace, but emotive, taking its time to luxuriate in the complex emotions between people. You know, as far back as I can remember there’s been complex, awkward, downright vexing relations among folks everywhere, which may explain some of the timeless quality of this record and a little of the gentle irony in the title, Funny How Things Turn Out.
Actually the title is borrowed from Olivia Coleman in the blacker-than-pitch UK comedy, Flowers and that show wields irony like a bludgeon. In Feign Jima’s hands it's meaning is actually a lot more direct; which is ironic. Also a little sad, because brutal, comedic irony is one of my favourite things. Be that as it may, Fanning is content to mull over the vagaries of a variety of her interpersonal connections, without sarcastic snark.
I’d say that’s really leaving your guard down and maybe that’s why the vein of sadness through a song like Ultimate Defender is so moving. As a friendship crumbles -so much more devastating than a failed romance, those implode all the time- Jamie-Lee takes it full force, without bitterness, straight in the heart. She has the voice to express this. Her music often reminds me of the decadently fusionist soft-rock of the ‘70s or some of its more recent revivalists, like Weyes Blood, Angel Olsen or Australia’s Elizabeth Mitchell. Very fortunately she brings not just the style but the vocal firepower of those thunderers as well. The end of Ultimate Defender soars and it’s as if by reaching the stars you can outrun what you’re going through.
Let’s return to that fusion thing for a second. What I hear on this EP is literally guitar-driven singer-songwriter fare, a quality Fanning has been emphasising by moving to the axe as her main instrument, over the piano she previously favoured. However, there’s always a feeling like she’s just this close to breaking out into other genres. Maybe it’s something to do with Mildlife’s Jim Rindfleish being on production (and some instrumental duties too), or any of the fairly large number of other session musos adding their two cents. Maybe it’s the stylistic hangover from the time Fanning spent vocalising for laidback funksters Leisure Centre, I’m not sure. Listen to a cut like Garden, from her previous EP, which changes out a lot of the guitar for some chiming synths and suddenly we’re out of psychedelic dreampop and into soulful downtempo; uncanny!
Here however, Jamie-Lee draws in on the strumming of her acoustic and her crooning, mostly fairly quietly, about her melancholy. It’s a little bit of a shame: the other three offerings on Funny How Things Turn Out are a lot more subdued than Ultimate Defender, though quite similar in style. They’re fine enough in their own right and Fanning has already released most of them as singles. Yet I do find myself waiting for that roar I know she’s capable of. Or as she puts it on Beaches: “don’t need to tell you that I know it’s been a while.”
Great suffering produces great art. So, even if I wasn’t expecting good things from all the subtle array of classic stylings Feign Jima lays out here -I am- then her complete willingness to embrace life’s heartache should give her an aesthetic advantage; one that she hasn't fully cashed in on just yet. Funny How Things Turn Out delivers a subtle sadness, but a heart can only live in winter for so long. I predict Jamie-Lee Fanning's voice will soon ring out, powerfully, in a new song.
- Chris Cobcroft.