JOHN JODY

Having previously recorded as Black Nash and Jody Smith, New York-based singer-songwriter John Jody’s Crooked Star EP marks a shift for the artist. While Black Nash’s sound was characterized by a mix of quiet balladry and raucous, angular guitar rock, Crooked Star skips the skronk and goes right for the heart, featuring four almost entirely acoustic tracks with a vivid sense of interiority. From the voyeuristic longing of lead single “Chelsea Encounter” to the wistful nostalgia of “Sweet Lemon” and the flat regret of “Tokyo”, each track on Crooked Star foregrounds Jody’s voice against spare acoustic guitars and sighing pedal steel. It all makes for an achingly gorgeous set, one that strips away old layers of artifice to reveal the profound longing and incisive songcraft at the core of Jody’s art.