Music listeners who stumble upon Jack River’s “Fool’s Gold” music video will probably find themselves drawing some comparisons to alt-pop chanteuse Lana Del Rey. There’s the artistic and evocative music video, the poignant female-centric lyrics about the devastations of the heart, and a similar artist backstory. Born in New South Wales, Jack River initially performed under her own name, Holly Rankin. After gaining recognition in Sydney, she began releasing music under the stage name of Jack River after signing a record deal with Aussie indie label I Oh You records. “Palo Alto”, her second single under the pseudonym, echoes Del Rey’s aesthetic fascination with the West Coast (Elizabeth Grant grew up and attended college in New York).
River’s latest single and her debut EP Highway Songs No. 2 (2016) are nevertheless enough to establish some key differences. Instead of Lana’s penchant for self-mythologizing and reliance on Hollywood glamour, cinematic noir, Americana and hip hop as sources of inspiration, River’s performative persona is a gutsy, and down-to-earth girl-next-door who dreams of the beaches and the wide, open road - while looking towards the future instead of the past. She cites a list of sterling rockers (Neil Young, Bob Dylan, The Beatles, and The Beach Boys) as some of her influences, but operates with a wider variety of genre influences: electropop, pop-rock, blues-rock, and surf-folk.
The narrative thread that runs through all her singles, beginning with the synth-driven “Talk Like That”, is that of the overlooked girl who inevitably suffers in the competition for male attention. The song is a direct address to a male love interest who is ‘blinded’ to her presence by a more charismatic woman: ‘I don’t talk like that/ I don’t talk like her/ I won't dance around you/ Cause I don't do it like that’. In “Palo Alto”, her upbeat and melodic guitar-pop drive to Mexico is marred by feelings of envy and hurt: ‘Was she a star/ You're only asking me now/ Weren't you watching the whole goddamn time?’
“Fool’s Gold” hits on the accelerator on this narrative thread, with River arriving at emotional closure via a large and cathartic chorus that arrives after many lamentations about losing out to the romantic competition:
‘Fool’s gold
Shining in the night
So easy on the eyes
Fool’s gold
How many times do I have to realize?
Fool’s gold
So bright
Fooling everyone in sight’
With its anthemic hook and dual evocations of self-sufficiency and romantic disappointment, “Fools’ Gold” is reminiscent of Shakira’s 2005 hit “Don’t Bother” - albeit sung from a further distance to the male addressee and with more commonplace lyricism. With the help of its vividly cinematic accompanying video, there’s a strong chance that River will establish an enthusiastic following beyond Australian borders:
“Matt [Sav] and I wanted to illuminate the lyrics in surreal ways. With the aesthetic, we wanted to pay homage to the musical production – shifting between super grainy and highly produced tones. Aside from the deliberately apparent scenes with the couple, there is a constant line of surrealism between the subject and what they want.”
Holly Rankin, The A.U. Review
