CMU Approved

Approved: Someone

By Andy Malt | Published on Thursday 20 May 2021

Tessa Rose Jackson – who performs as Someone – spent her lockdown, like many musicians over the last year, recording music alone. Over time, these psychedelic pop songs, often reflecting on life in isolation, formed into her new album ‘Shapeshifter’, which is set for release later this year.

The follow-up to last year’s ‘Orbit II’, which amalgamated two EPs with a handful of new tracks, ‘Shapeshifter’ benefits greatly from being made in one time and setting. It’s a cohesive work, where her songs (and a dreamy cover of Bob Dylan’s ‘Blowin In The Wind’) flow together.

Each song has a basis in Jackson’s guitar and voice, with overdubbed instruments like piano and strings bringing more depth to the individual tracks themselves, but also helping to draw together the album as a whole.

First single, ‘Strange World’, captures the overall sound and theme of the record perfectly. Beginning life as a simple bass melody, it gradually grew into the fully formed song that arrives now.

“I couldn’t stop playing it and in my mind the image started to form of a vast outstretched beach”, she explains of the track. “Deserted, but for one person. This is her place; this is where she keeps returning to. But it’s not real. And so the story started to take shape. The song is about stepping back into an old, fond memory. And though it welcomes you in every time, the more you revisit it, the more you begin to realise how much things have changed. It becomes a reminder that nothing is constant, not even you”.

Watch the video for ‘Strange World’ here:

Stay up to date with all of the artists featured in the CMU Approved column by subscribing to our Spotify playlist.