If It's Too Loud...

Photo via Facebook The latest single from Photocomfort has one of the more unique backstories I've heard in a while. I'm going to do the lazy journalist/cut and paste thing, but I really love the way Justine Bowe tells it on Facebook: " Dear   # GillianJacobs , I wrote you a song, and it's out today. People used to stop me and tell me that I looked like you. I didn't see it until you dyed your hair a bit darker and took on roles where you began to struggle. I had just left a good gig where I was touring around the country with people I loved. I made an entire record that I never released. I went through a breakup, lost my writing partner, and turned dow n a couple of offers to grow my band thinking I could do it all on my own. Nothing was working (I wasn't either). I was starting to suspect that I had already failed, my musical career was done, and who am I but my music? Who am I without the success of my music? Who am I without people who listen to my ...

I suppose one of the benefits of us dropping the ball and taking months to tell you about a new song from an artist is the shorter wait for the next single. We finally discovered the latest single from Photocomfort, "Rose Colored Glasses," last week, and now here's the second single from her upcoming EP, "Long Way Home." The subject matter of "Long Way Home" is near and dear to me, in that I usually think that I'm the only one who does it: It's about driving around alone just to work stuff out in your head. It's always nice to find others with your own quirks, and that doesn't even bring up the song musically. "Long Way Home" is sonically stunning. It reminds me of this mostly passed over era of the mid to late 90's when female artists were breaking into the mainstream with gorgeous but challenging music, like Tori Amos and PJ Harvey. Photocomfort is somehow taking music that sounds mostly electronic and making it so...

The upcoming EP from Photocomfort was recorded in a cabin on Lake Winnepesaukee, a place I spent an insane amount of time as a child. I couldn't help but check out the music, and fully expected some acoustic/rootsy tracks since it was recorded in a cabin in New Hampshire. I don't think I could have been more wrong. The first single from the EP, "Rose Colored Glasses," is more along the lines of electronic tinged late 90's singer/songwriter fare. It's being compared to Alanis Morrissette and Dido, but I'm hearing a lot more of From the Choirgirl Hotel era Tori Amos. There is just too much dissonance and uncomfortable feelings in the beauty of the song to not make that connection for me.  You can listen to "Rose Colored Glasses" below. Photocomfort's new EP, Understudy , will be available in the spring. For more on Photocomfort, check out their (her?) website .