Cameron Webley
There's a cool thing happening from the start of the new EP from Jack River (a.k.a. Australia's Holly Rankin). The intro, "Highway," sets the mood for Highway Songs No. 2, mainly in its unexpectedness. The disparity in the songs' sounds is probably because Rankin wrote each during different periods of her life, but despite that, the collection works as one being. A motorcycle's vroom leads us into a journey. It starts with the exquisite pop-rock song "Palo Alto," washes over to the pure pop of "Head To Stars” and "Talk Like That,” and ends with the cozy, languid "Nothing's Gonna Hurt You Baby." By the end you might not know what happened.
"Highway Songs No. 2 is a mixtape of 5 songs written and produced at completely different times in my life," Rankin wrote in a note to The FADER. "I wanted each song to have its own cinematic feeling of moving on, of driving through a golden afternoon into the unknown night." Listen below — it's out on I OH YOU (AU) and Hopeless Utopian Records (U.S.) this Friday, October 7.