UK artist CRYSTAL JACQUELINE appeared as a solo artist a few years back, and haven’t looked back since with a handful or so of EPs and singles to her name at this point in addition to two full length albums. “Morning Dew” is her most recent EP, and was released in the late spring of 2016 through UK label Fruits de Mer Records.
The gentler aspects of psychedelic rock, or perhaps psychedelic pop is a more appropriate description, has been a mainstay of the material Jacqueline have released so far from what I have heard, and this EP is no exception. As is the case with most Fruits de Mer releases cover tunes is the order of the day here, with tracks by the perhaps not all too well known artists Bonnie Dobson/Tim Rose, Joe Byrd and the Field Hippies and The Jaynetts given a runaround, in addition to an original penned by her creative partner Icarus Peel.
The cover tunes are pieces of music proven by time, more or less at least, and all of them comes across as good examples of 60’s psychedelic pop music performed in an appropriate manner. Dreamladen, elegant and with a sound and mood that does have the spirit of the psychedelic 60’s written all over them. Gentle plucked guitars and oddly toned resonating guitar notes is the order of the day, subtly exotic sounding timbres an ongoing feature and the soft going on cold vocals of Jacqueline a mostly perfect fit to these surroundings.
Personally I found the somewhat darker and mystical original cut Ivy to be the most intriguing creation however, perhaps because it did include a bit more contrast and wasn’t quite as innocently dreamladen as the featured cover songs. Still a composition with it’s heart and soul firmly placed in 1960’s style psychedelic rock or pop, but done with a bit more elegance as I experienced it at least.
If you love 1960’s psychedelic rock of the gentler variety and tends to be fascinated by female lead vocalists adding their charms to music of this nature, you really can’t go much wrong if you desire to give this EP a spin. The sounds, moods and even mix and production has a 60’s feel to them, and Jacqueline is a vocalist very well suited indeed to material of this nature.
My rating: 85/100
