ALBUM REVIEW: Jennifer Castle Ponders Life While Searching for ‘Camelot’

In songs that are both earthy and cinematic, Jennifer Castle examines all the unglamorous corners of being an artist in an unstable world on her latest studio album, Camelot. The title suggests a bit of cheeky irony. Utopia, after all, doesn’t always look the way you expect. It’s filled with landmines and conflict as much as dreamy revelations – a kind of perfect parallel to the often perilous and unpredictable life of a musician seasoned by a healthy dose of cynicism, but still hoping for more. With a soft warble somewhere between Margo Price and Amanda Shires, Castle’s vocals revel in the loveliest, gentle imperfections. She never flourishes or hides, evoking the timelessness of the greatest folk singers.

Reinforced by her enchanting voice, the imagery in Castle’s songwriting hints at the otherworldly and the ‘woo-woo,’ even when she’s deep-diving on more grounded topics like climate change, corporate greed, religious brainwashing, and life’s fragility. The album’s opening and title track is soaked in a wistfulness, as Castle sings about transience and instability:

I’ve been sleeping in

the unfinished basement

I said it as a joke

But I’ve come to really mean it

When I go to play

Don’t let my bed just blow away

You know it’s never felt that permanent

On “Full Moon in Leo” with its groovy ‘60s instrumentals, she captures a kind of witchy Los Angeles vibe as she tries to stay present and focused, rather than jaded. “I get tired of sending/My songs off and waiting/For some foreign agent to say/Let’s make bank,” she sings. And then there’s the pair of songs, “Trust” and “Louis,” which take aim at institutions and the human beings who get burned by them, respectively. The former conjures the cold starkness of churches and corporate settings, contrasted by the latter’s idylls, like a blue lagoon and the fountain of youth, and a meetinghouse with “fires crackling.”

What is Camelot and does it even exist? Castle may never land on a solid destination in her quest, but it’s the journey that proves most compelling. Dotted with little vignettes—love stories, complex characters, the plight and beauty of the human experience—Camelot is a ravishing foray into the unknown by an artist who actually knows quite a lot about life.

Jennifer Castle’s Camelot is out today on Paradise of Bachelors.