Review: Julia Jacklin — The Gem

Julia Jacklin
The Gem
4AD
Street: 09.25.2026
Julia Jacklin = Joni Mitchell + Gillian Welch

2026 has been a great year for women on the pop landscape with landmark releases by Olivia Rodrigo, Charli XCX and the genre-bending mind fuck that was Undertones. Julia Jacklin is on the same landscape delivering a different kind of pop music; more Joni Mitchell than Madonna. Jacklin lives in spaces Angel Olsen, Sharon Van Etten and Mitzki built, making room for herself there. On her brilliant new album “The Gem” Jacklin tosses in a good dose of dream indie pop with an equal dose of confessional alt-country honesty that she meshes together into intimate indie rock perfection.

On “The Gem” Jacklin sings about love and companionship balanced against the freedom of being alone with a little bit of God thrown in for good measure. God, not in a religious sense, more in Divine surveillance and all the guilt that gets handed out with it. “How to feel free with someone watching over me?” Jacklin ponders on “Angel Vision” in a subtle tone, “There were heavenly creatures / Desperate to sing for me / Arms slack, I was pushing back the ceiling.” It seems Jacklin fights a higher presence while trying to climb out of a Christian upbringing.

Jacklin revisits this theme on the track “God Sometimes” turning the savior myth inward: “I see you as your own savior.” Jacklin confesses, “Oh, you have to be a God sometimes / Force the moment to change / Flip the table, and re-arrange.”

On the first single, “Get Away From Me (I Think I’ll Love You Soon),” Jacklin sings, “I’m just trying to ready myself  / For what’s coming my way” — it’s sugar bliss like butterscotch. She continues, lamenting: “There’s no need to be sure / That love is coming my way / I’m just trying to ready myself / To get through the day.” This hits the theme that reoccurs on this record between wanting to be in love and also needing freedom and space. The track has that upbeat, sunshine guitar pop element as if Jacklin took a bite of Liz Phair and swirled it together with the singular, easy rock charm of Sheryl Crow.

God returns once again on the track “If I Had The Hand Of God”, a song about being a working musician, the music industry and surviving in it. It considers if having a touch of the divine could fix anything like vulnerability, loneliness and addiction that comes with touring town-to-town. “Will the circle stay unbroken / If I walked away for a while?” Jacklin muses, “What kind of life is that? / After the show / Become an outline / to everyone I know.” The track is bookended by: “Leaning on the bar / Spinning my ring / Mary sings and I feel everything” with, “Standing in the yard / Trying not to drink / Mary sings and I feel nothing.” Jacklin understands that you can lose yourself doing the things you love and not even the hand of god can fix it.

“The Gem” features jangly guitars mixed with synths and drum machines, yet, the track takes all these elements and makes everything feel intimate. Like being in the same room with Jacklin and her four piece band. 

The album was recorded above a neighborhood pub of the same name (The Gem) in Melbourne, Australia. A pub very familiar to Jacklin. One reason this record has such a loose, lived-in feel that grooves along to the texture of Jacklin’s soft-like-taffy voice. Every song on this record feels like a home. — Russ Holsten

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