Jess Williamson’s A Mile South of Heaven: A Reflection on Love and Departure in LA

In her opening track, titled after Joan Didion’s poignant essay Goodbye to All That, Jess Williamson explores her conflicted emotions regarding Los Angeles. While Didion reflected on leaving her beloved New York City behind, Williamson remains in LA, torn between the urge to stay and the impulse to leave.

This inner turmoil is complemented by Williamson’s most conventional musical landscapes to date. On ‘Hum of the City,’ her accent emerges in full force over melancholic strings and a gentle banjo. The electronic beats from her 2023 breakout album, Time Ain’t Accidental, are absent, and while the Americana influences evoke her nostalgia for Dallas, they occasionally render the album less adventurous.

Among the standout tracks are moments that strip country music down to its essence, presenting it in a surprisingly new light. ‘Tracking the Tropics’ serves as a sparse reflection on climate anxiety, enhanced by an eerie Mellotron, while the album’s closing piece, ‘The Gem and Mineral Show,’ recounts a memory of sharing champagne with a pop icon, concluding with a hauntingly raw depiction of loneliness.