Jasmine.4.T is the only album you need to recommend anymore
For a large part of my life, people have asked me for recommendations for music to listen to. It’s a professional expectation and a personal perk.
If you’ve ever been entrusted with such a suggestion – either as a casual “what are you listening to right now?” or a more specific, and wholly more enjoyable, “I’m about to walk through Mexico City and need three albums to sound track it” – then you will know that endorphin levels never quite reach the same ranks as when someone hand selects you to have enough taste to make a pivotal decision for them.
But it must be said that I struggle to always meet the challenge. Trying to pick a new album or artist for another person to listen to and, most importantly, enjoy listening to, is a tough gig. You have to take in a whole range of different metrics. How is that person feeling right now? What’s the weather like? What day of the week is it? And how do you want the requester to feel about you?
If you’re looking for a canal-side accompaniment to a sunny walk with an iced coffee and a pep in your step, then Willie J Healey’s Bunny is about as perfect a record as there is. But if you’re seeking a bombastic Sunday spent hiding from the rain while you drink wine and roast meats, then Bill Fay’s Time of the Last Persecution is as perfect as the rain on your window.
But, of late, I have had it easy, as I simply point towards Jasmine.4.T and her incredible 2025 record, You Are The Morning.
A London-based artist signed to Phoebe Bridgers’ record label, Jasmine.4.T has quietly been amassing a cult following, with yours truly included. She’s roped me in as a devotee through the power of one of the standout albums of the year so far. Holding the record in my hand, as I look down my list of checkboxes of what makes a perfect LP to recommend to blot with an imaginary biro, Jasmine.4.T has been enthusiastically swooping across every single one of them.
The record is a multi-layered piece of songwriting brilliance that has, in my 50th-ish rotation of the album, only ever continued to ripen and mature. It is light and dark, soft and hard, speckled with the tragedy of suffering and bruised by the brightness of joyful hope. It’s the kind of album that can, if you’re struggling, offer up a ladder out of desperation. It’s a very special record built out of Jasmine.4.T’s pain and her attempts to heal it, like the breaking blue sky following a dark and stormy night.
“You Are The Morning is an absolute essential for any frequent recommender. Jasmine.4.T. manages to capture every essence of what makes music not just enjoyable but entirely indispensable facet of life”.
Jack Whatley
For every sunny walk, there is ‘Best Friend’s House’, a bountiful explosion of what it feels like to make a friend. The grey clouds loom, and ‘Kitchen’ will allow you just enough room to languish for a minute. When your heart beats hard and love feels like it might be around the corner, ‘You Are The Morning’ is about as close as you can get to perfection. Want to crush a beer and dive into some tunes, then ‘Guy Fawkes Tesco Dissociation’ is a go-to. It goes on and on. ‘Tall Girl’ and ‘Woman’ are as empowering as one might hope the titles suggest, while ‘Breaking In Reverse’ is a bona fide banger when the band are on stage, but still slaps across your speakers with a belligerent force.
So no matter the scenario you are faced with, Jasmine.4.T can provide an auditory accompaniment. If you’re faced with the near-daily situation I am, being consistently asked by a variety of people to share some recommendations, then please stop agonising over the issue and just put You Are The Morning in your back pocket. Oasis dads will love the nod to the 1990s, teenagers will gather up the vulnerability and embrace it with vigour, and hopefully, you know a couple of Pixies fans who will dig the light and shade.
But really, the star of the show is Jasmine.4.T herself. A powerhouse songwriter who has not only created a record deeply rich with personal affectation and accomplishment but provide a brutal sense of humanity. This is what everyone I have recommended this album to has responded with. No matter their background, age, gender or job title.
You Are The Morning isn’t just the best recommendation right now; it’s the kind of record that morphs to fit whoever is listening. It’s empathetic. It’s adaptable. It’s honest. It’s the only recommendation you need.
