Album Review: Sweet Jean - Dear Departure

Sweet Jean is the apt moniker of Melbourne duo Sime Nugent and Alice Keath. Co-produced by John Castle (Washington, The Cat Empire), their debut release, Dear Departure, is a beautiful collection of folk and alt-country tunes that traverses through a range of colours within the spectrum of the genres and is lushly produced without being cluttered. There are the usual suspects on a folk record – acoustic guitars, piano, banjo, strings and horns – however, it's the voices and songs that stand out. Vocally Nugent walks in Wilco's footsteps, and Keath is like a calmer, lower and warmer Washington. Both take a few songs solo but it's their harmonies that seduce the listener. There are no acrobatics or dramatics in their performances, just an honest delivery and subtle sweetness.

The sound belies the thread of menace that underpins the record and the pair navigate through darkness to light and back again effortlessly. After opening with breezy love song, Tomorrow Morning, and the playfully shifting time-signatures of Hello Concrete, the haunting folk of Parachutes takes over. Standout pop track, Rise And Fall, is next, but the darkness returns in Maureen and Annabelle. The duality of their folk aesthetic is shown best on the up-beat Shiver And Shake, with a jaunty melody veiling the chilling lyrics of a town's outsider; “That cold wind there made them murderers sway/He cut the bodies down, turned that fire to a blaze”. Slower alt-country ballads, Angels Come Get You, Down Into The Valley and Little Stream, close the record. 

With strong and consistent songwriting and performances, Dear Departure is a warm and elegant record with just the right touch of darkness.