As the first UK signing to Phoebe Bridgers’ Saddest Factory Records, Jasmine.4.t’s ‘You Are The Morning’ comes with quite a weight of expectation. It is co-produced by Bridgers alongside her boygenius bandmates, Lucy Dacus and Julien Baker, who also provide backing vocals. However, it is very much the vision of Manchester based singer-songwriter and trans woman, Jasmine Cruickshank, and is dedicated to queer friendship, delving deep into her experiences coming out in 2021. It was a time of getting divorced, struggling for acceptance, experiencing homelessness, sleeping on friend’s couches and relying on community support. Consequently, it is a raw album, albeit one full of imagination, artistry and a surprising level of positivity.
The opening song, ‘Kitchen’, sees Cruickshank accompanied only by herself on finger-picking guitar. Appropriately enough for its kitchen sink setting, it is full of self-critique seeing herself as “this broken girl full of love with no capacity for romance” and “a corpse of a girl still face-down in another kitchen down south” yet is an inspiring ode to the wisdom and support of her friend. ‘Skin on Skin’ shows her every bit as comfortable with a full band sound on a track which has the feel of classic 90s American indie rock. It was written over a period where she was on a break from her marriage and a new relationship developed. The lyrics have an intimacy in their references to the body and act as a celebration of healing and physical catharsis through intimacy.
In a different mood, ‘Highfield’ has Cruickshank on baritone guitar while Phoenix Rousiamanis uses harpsichord and violin to create a sense of tension which matches the fears expressed (“I’m gonna take self-defence so you don’t worry about me… each time I reach my door shaking screams from my heads and rivers from my eyes.”) Baker, Bridgers and Dacus provide backing vocals that give ‘Breaking in Reverse’ a relaxed country rock vibe that clashes effectively with the more abrasive guitars and sentiments (“there’s a million black dogs in my head and they’re fighting with my heart.”)
On the title track, the flexibility of her all-trans band is in evidence. The dexterity of Eden O’Brien’s tapped percussion entwines with Vixen Diary’s double bass. Alongside the fingerpicking guitar, Rousiamanis adds textures through synth, violin and piano mirroring the feeling of being in safe company that is the song’s theme. That theme is continued on the short ‘Best Friend’s House’, a folky and simple song which also includes Becca Mancari in its backing chorus.
Any prizes for the best song title would go to ‘Guy Fawkes Tesco Dissociation’. It is the record’s most full-on pop rock song, although incorporating accordion, violin and banjo, albeit the words, “the banjo has got to go” are spoken almost immediately. There is a woozy but exhilarated sense of release to the chorus cry of “when there’s nothing in my head but the screaming.” A short blast of a pop song, ‘Tall Girl’ rolls with its Wurlitzer and celebration of physicality (“comparing your curves.”)
‘New Shoes’ is the album’s oldest song, sounding very delicate and fragile. It was originally made for her ex-spouse and pinpoints how the notion of soulmate-hood is a fallacy while revealing the importance of chosen family. That fragility develops further on ‘Roan’, an achingly slow piano ballad full of body issues but with a glimmer of hope in the lines “A glimpse that one day I’ll believe in someone accepting my physical form.”
The final trio of tunes are bolstered by the presence of The Trans Chorus of Los Angeles. ‘Elephant’ was written in the early stages of her transition about her first t4t love and the hurt of trying to remain friends while desiring so much more. It maintains the sense of tender but on edge beauty before being swept away in a wash of melodic guitar noise and the choir’s chorus. ‘Transition’ is 53 seconds of the choir’s voices overlapping, almost like speaking in tongues, the lyrics which are “What do you call woman / Breathe of gin / Softer skin” being indecipherable. Those words reappear on the closing track, ‘Woman’. To a backing of baritone and ambient guitars, she outlines the difficulties of learning her boundaries and movingly sings, “I understand that I am in my soul a woman / That I am in body a woman.” It is an ideal way to round off an album that clearly delineates the trials as well as the joys of transition, celebrating the chance to be your true self. Musically, its choices are equally powerful, varied and accessible. In an era where social media hysteria amplifies anti-trans sentiments, it is an especially valuable record.
Jasmine.4.t: You Are The Morning – Out 17 January 2025 (Saddest Factory Records)
– Skin on Skin (Official Visualizer)
I was editor of the long-running fanzine, Plane Truth, and have subsequently written for a number of publications. While the zine was known for championing the most angular independent sounds, performing in recent years with a community samba percussion band helped to broaden my tastes so that in 2021 I am far more likely to be celebrating an eclectic mix of sounds and enthusing about Made Kuti, Anthony Joseph, Little Simz and the Soul Jazz Cuban compilations as well as Pom Poko and Richard Dawson.
