Jadagu, Hannah: Describe (CD)

On Describe, Hannah Jadagu learns the hard way that distance is relative. After her 2023 debut album Aperture garnered glowing praise from outlets like The New York Times and NPR, Jadagu’s blossoming career took her away from her blossoming relationship in New York. Her expansive second album sees her grappling with that separation, finding connections that extend beyond the physical and strengthening her own voice in the process.

Describe reverberates with that tension, between wanting connection and craving space. Its lyrics, as on her debut, ache with an emotional specificity that can only be pulled from lived experience. “I’ve been five thousand miles away,” she sings over ricochetting hi-hats on “More”—“Why does three thousand feel like more?”

But that distance also pushed Jadagu to explore new dimensions of her sound. “I'm super into artists that are able to mix analog with modern,” she said, and moving to California for the summer gave her the opportunity to meet new collaborators and experiment with analogue synthesizers and drum machines. And while the warm hum of her guitar was her primary instrument for Aperture, she began to feel that her muscle memory of the instrument was holding her back.

“It was freeing to be able to sit at a synth and drone on one note while I explored my vocals," she said. ”I found that to be a bit more freeing than playing on a guitar.” Working with producer Sora Lopez at his studio in Altadena and remotely on a few songs with Aperture co-producer and collaborator Max Baby out of Paris, Jadagu carved out a sound on Describe that is both distinctively hers and a total departure from the distorted guitar melodies of her debut.

Much of Describe, though, is about what goes unsaid: “A lot of this album is me trying to figure out how to express ideas that aren’t always so concrete,” Jadagu said. “It's just a flow of things that I'm feeling and going through and expressing.” It’s fitting, then, that Describe ends with “Bergamont,” which finds Jadagu singing some of her most brutally honest lyrics to date over a layered synth that mimics the tension and release of a long, cleansing breath. “I hope you find something true to you,” she sings. On Describe, Jadagu is searching for the words to describe the truth, on her terms, relishing in the uncertainty in that journey.

1. Describe
2. Gimme Time
3. More
4. D.I.A.A.
5. Perfect
6. My Love
7. Couldn't Call
8. Tell Me That !!!!
9. Normal Today
10. Doing Now
11. Miracles
12. Bergamont