The masterpiece that Joan Baez wrote about her breakup with Bob Dylan
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Credit: Nick Mckk
Watch Julia Jacklin’s stunning cover of Big Thief’s ‘Paul’
With her stunning rendition of ‘Someday’ originally by The Strokes, Julia Jacklin gave the world one of the most beauteous covers of recent times. However, that’s not the only magically interpreted piece of music that she has put forth since emerging onto the scene with her debut album Don’t Let the Kids Win back in 2016.
That same year, Big Thief ensured that it was going to be one of the best periods for indie-folk in recent times after they delivered a spectacular album befittingly titled Masterpiece. Amid the poignantly vulnerable ditties was the stirring song titled ‘Paul’. It doesn’t come as that much of a surprise that when Jacklin tried it on for size five years back, the track fit her like a glass slipper.
The pastures of love-lost realisations have proved fertile in the past, but few recent anthems have plucked the fruit with the same untouched rawness that Big Thief and Jacklin have with ‘Paul’ and ‘Don’t Know How to Keep Loving You’ respectively. Both tracks take an even-keeled approach to a breakup devoid of hysteria but cutting, nevertheless. The highs and lows are registered and almost with a sonic sigh, the melodies defer that memory will do the rest.
This is part of the reason that you know well before you hear it that Jacklin will give ‘Paul’ the treatment it deserves. Her delicate way of approaching and appraising a song allows her to interpret it perfectly. Thus, with her delicate yet powerfully bare vocals, she portrays the profound details in the melodious mix with punchy perfection.
It was the legendary David Bowie who once said, “I’m a moderately good singer. I’m not a great singer. But I can interpret the song, which I don’t think is quite the same thing as singing it.” While I would opine that he is being remarkably harsh on himself there, it rings true that singing a song and performing the fine details within are two separate things. Fortunately, Jacklin is both a great singer, in her own humble and hushed way, and a masterful interpreter of music.
Upon the release of the serene video filmed in monochrome excellence in New York City by the music photographer Shervin Lainez, Jacklin described Masterpiece as one of her favourite albums of 2016. Now, in 2022, every element of the cover, albums and artists involved endures. The stunning cover is a quietly thrilling beauty and it proves the perfect mellow accompaniment to these midwinter days.
