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Apr 12, 2019 Jess Ribeiro By Ben Jardine

For Jess Ribeiro, the creative process often out outshines the finished product. The Melbourne-native (whose 2015 effort, Kill It Yourself, was shortlisted for the Australian Music Prize) recorded her third studio album, LOVE HATE, in the remote seaside town of Lyttleton, New Zealand. Inspired by Arabic literature, the structure of LOVE HATE centers around the seven stages of love: from attraction and infatuation to obsession and death. And mapped against these cardinal points, the record moves effortlessly between the shoegazey bliss of “Stranger,” to the more ominous subjects in “Love Is the Score of Nothing,” to the Velvets-themed “Cry Baby.”

All throughout the album’s dozen tracks, Riberio moves from negative, breathy space (“Painkiller”) to more loaded jams (“Chair Stare”) with ease: her guitar playing provides a seamless panorama upon which Ribeiro reflects. “I’m not ashamed to be in love. This is not a game,” she sings on the downtempo and electronic “Young Love.”

If LOVE HATE is a rumination on the process of love, then this record expertly guides you through each idea and thought—as if you’re in the room with the artist herself. (www.jessribeiro.com)

Author rating: 6/10