Consumer Guide Album

Jax: Dear Joe, [Atlantic, 2024]
Just 28, she not only sounds girlish and cynical at the same time but makes as clear as her commitment to maintaining an unprecedented balance of mean jokes, lovelorn plaints, and next-level feminism that coexists with a comic, catchy, credible autobiography for art's sake. The girlish part is embodied by a soprano so pure you'll be surprised how worldly-wise it turns out to be and even more surprised that its wisdom comes with yucks that provide both an edge to and a respite from her cynicism. Which damn right is earned. It can be brittle and/or thin, I admit. But it's also utterly original. And it closes with one called "Victoria's Secret," which is that "She's an old man in Ohio/Making money off of girls like me." A-