Jillian Jacqueline Proves that Often Times, a Record's Best Tunes are on "Side B"

Though Jillian spent most of her childhood familiar with the musical spotlight, she has only been recognizable in the public eye for about four years. She made a sizeable impact online with her release of “Overdue” featuring Vince Gill in 2014, which broke a million streams. Since then, she has become quite a prevalent name on the country music scene, making her first big impact on country radio with a close-but-no-cigar try for the top 40 on her #53 single, “Reasons.”

“Reasons” was the lead single from her album, “Side A” from 2017, and in late August this year, she released the follow up to that project, “Side B,” which includes the Keith Urban featured single, “If I Were You.”

“Overdue” was an undeniably country track, but Jacqueline majorly walked the line of earning that genre label with the reverb and vocal-layer heavy “Side-A.” As the comarketting would suggest, “Side-B” continues that trend. From the the very first few beats of the EP, the tempo-changing fade in and four on the floor intro of “Priorities” asserts that the listener isn’t in for a run of the mill country album. The pop leaning production doesn’t fade through track two, three, or four, but then she reminds us how beautiful her voice is with the tear worthy track 5, “Sad Girls.”

The name of the EP and it’s preceding counterpart reference a medium from a time that Jillian Jacqueline is too young to remember, but the vibey way “B-Side” is produced makes it very easy to imagine listening to it on vinyl. Yes, the majority of the tracks don’t sound very country, but the writing makes it feel like country. We are taken through the whole spectrum of emotions in six songs; we’re told stories, of broken heart, getting over love and falling into new love.

From the title of the EP to the carefully crafted songwriting, it seems clear that Jacqueline’s primary objective, was not to make country music necessarily, but simply good music. She went out on a limb, it paid off in the product, and she was able to paint some really vivid pictures. That sounds a heck of a lot like what I call country music.