Description
Love Hate, Jess Ribeiro’s third album, sees the Melbourne musician renowned for her brooding folk-rock turning her attentions to plain spoken vignettes and synths in a move that has pushed her sound to exciting new places. Whereas her first two records are sepia-toned, Love Hate is an all-electric technicolour lunge towards pop, backed by guitarist Jade McInally and drummer Dave Mudie (the latter a member of Courtney Barnett’s touring band). The results are vibrant and clearly aimed at introducing the Melbourne singer-songwriter to a bigger audience. Throughout it all, Ribeiro’s trademark husky vocal serves as the album’s anchor, taking on honeyed tones on tracks such as ‘Cry Baby’ and ‘Crawling Back To You’, while commanding entirely on ‘Dylan’ and ‘Chair Stare’.
Love Hate is an ambitious and honest album that chronicles love, from meeting an appealing stranger all the way through to the bitter end.
