Jannah Beth’s Orbits and Echoes is one of those records that captivates you from the first moment.
What I loved about Jannah when I first heard her music was the way it felt just outside of any genre, yet also oddly familiar; unique, yet not overly experimental, and I’m pleased the album lives up to this.
Opening track Fly Me To The Moon is an incredibly stripped back song that hinges entirely on Jannah’s vocals. It allows you to see the power in her voice, and the layers of little melodic riffs, synths and electro distortion that build throughout the track give you a taster of what is to come.
Second track moonbaby is quite a switch-up. It’s a more upbeat r n b influenced song with punchy electro style drums. The album continues to pick up its pace for a little while at this point and it moves into first single from the release Vintage Red Clubman and dance inspired spiderweb. The album then gradually eases back, ending as it started with all that’s left of me {2 am freestyle}, a sparse, piano centric track that softly draws the record to a close.
While its influences are eclectic, the album never goes too far in one direction, allowing space for the range of tracks to feel like they still ‘fit’, and at its core is this overall ethereal quality from the synth layers and reverb – which I guess is actually perfect for an album titled Orbits and Echoes.
Lyrically I like the way Jannah takes everyday musings and spins them into bigger existential wonders. Peppermint is a great example as the track goes on a journey from why there is peppermint in a garden to “is there a god?”. There’s something really grounding in this and I like while it’s not always explicit story telling about her life, it’s still centring her perspective within each song. It adds a relatable element to the album.
Orbits and Echoes represents a return to writing for Jannah Beth after several years focusing on building creative community through Offbeat Collective, the artist-led studio hub she founded in NSW in 2021. As I end this piece I’m left wondering if the journey taken on the album seeks to mirror this journey back into writing, from the initial vulnerable stages, to picking up the pace and momentum as she found her feet before closing peacefully, knowing the work is complete.