“I just think it’s perfect”: Julia Jacklin’s favourite song of all time
Julia Jacklin is one of the most poetic songwriters in contemporary music. The Aussie singer has endeared herself to thousands of fans with her music, which distils all the excitement, fear and anxiety of being a young woman into beautifully literary lyricism. Listening to a Julia Jacklin album feels like a chat with your big sister or a glass of wine with a friend. She’s unflinchingly vulnerable and emotive but just as comforting and supportive.
Considering the depth of emotion and poetry in her work, it may not come as a surprise that Jacklin is a huge fan of Leonard Cohen. The Canadian poet ventured into songwriting decades before Jacklin even entertained the idea, but she still found that his words and music resonated with her. He became a huge influence on her own music, alongside more upbeat and up-to-date picks like Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera.
Jacklin is well-versed in Cohen’s discography, as she demonstrated while picking out five essential tracks for WFUV, but there is one song she holds more dearly than the rest – his debut, the endlessly covered ‘Suzanne’. The gorgeous track has been Jacklin’s “most favourite song in the world” for years, and she can’t imagine it ever not being. “I just think it’s perfect,” she enthused.
One of Cohen’s signature works, it’s certainly a worthy pick, and one that aligns with Jacklin’s own musical interests. Sonically, ‘Suzanne’ begins with a singular guitar. Soft and warm, it provides a bed for Cohen to tell the story of his titular character. As the song progresses, it becomes more and more full, his lonely guitar accompanied by choral backing vocals and delicate strings.
In her own output, Jacklin veers between simple guitars and instrumental swells, each serving to enhance the track’s emotional impact. Like Cohen, she also has a focus on specificity and storytelling in her music, with her fair share of songs named after women. While Cohen tells tales of Suzanne and Marianne, Jacklin’s discography contains odes to Elizabeth and Lydia.
Lyrically, ‘Suzanne’ follows a relationship with its titular character, infusing each line with poetry and beauty. “And the sun pours down like honey on our lady of the harbour,” he sings, “And she shows you where to look among the garbage and the flowers.” It’s gorgeous songwriting, steeped in detail and emotion, just like Jacklin’s writing.
The Aussie songwriter was particularly enthusiastic about Cohen’s delivery of the words “tea and oranges” early into the song, noting that it “gets her every time.” His voice sounds so real, so connected to the lyrics they deliver. “It sounds like he had something stuck in his throat but he keeps on singing,” Jacklin commented.
This kind of realism, this authenticity, is exactly what makes her own catalogue stand so starkly apart from the influx of indie folk and indie rock over the past few years. In the image of Cohen, she infuses her music and musings with poetry and vulnerability, with storytelling and specificity, in a way that’s palpable in the final result.
‘Suzanne’ is certainly a worthy contender for anyone’s favourite song of all time, but so, too, is Jacklin’s work. From the heartbreaking ‘Don’t Know How To Keep Loving You’ to the heavenly ‘Lydia Wears A Cross’, it’s easy to find the influence of Cohen in her work, despite how distinctive her voice is.
Listen to ‘Suzanne’ by Leonard Cohen, Julia Jacklin’s favourite song of all time, below.
