Album Review: Jess Moskaluke, The Demos

The latest from singer Jess Moskaluke is that increasingly not-so-rare thing we might call the COVID platter. According to a press release, “The Demos came to be after… it was evident that Moskaluke wouldn’t be making it down to Nashville to record the new songs she had been working on. Having already demoed the vocals, Moskaluke worked virtually with her long-time producer Corey Crowder to create the eleven-track offering” which includes the singles “Country Girls,” “Halfway Home” and “Mapdot” alongside five new tracks and three modified demos from a previous writing session.

Yet The Demos’ provenance — while notable for illustrating Moskaluke’s flexibility and ability to succeed outside Nashville thanks so much — is the album’s least interesting aspect. The most interesting, of course, is Moskaluke’s voice, which is the aural equivalent of a triathlete: mighty, indefatigable, and, one imagines, rather aspirational for up-and-coming belters across genre lines. 

Predictably, the before-mentioned singles score high on the accessibility scale, with “Mapdot” snaring extra points for its twinkly, synth-y fade-in/out. The bracing “Leave Each Other Alone,” a duet painted in primary colours with Aussie singer/songwriter Travis Collins, hits the smoochy sweet spot without being cloying. Honestly, everything here is hunky-dory.

Still, I confess to yearning for a bona fide weepie on The Demos. It seems as though there’s no point having pipes like Moskaluke’s if you can’t use ‘em to rip somebody’s bruised and beating heart clean out of their chest with a single bracing crescendo. Then again, maybe our germ-y, pandemic-smeared world needs fewer tears and more beers. Go Jess!

The Demos is released February 19, 2021 on MDM Recordings Inc./Universal Music Canada.
Listen to it here.