By Anthony Mclaude, Rock At Night Philly
Review: Jessica Morale’s Debut Album PHASES – Release date August 27, 2021
Saw you with your makeup running down, what’s that all about? Fresh out of a breakup and feeling like she doesn’t belong anywhere like a Spanish galleon on her quest. Fort Lauderdale alt-pop singer-songwriter, Jessica Morale explores with reckless abandon a sullen and ill-tempered twenty-something angst; a newly penned roller coaster of emotions, Deadbeat Generation and ‘GIRLS!’ Both are dramatically different from the other and are the latest sonically recorded singles on her upcoming debut album, Phases, which will be released on August 27, 2021 on all streaming platforms.
On “Deadbeat Generation”, the red-hot singing binge in her rebellious songstress game deals with all of her pain while living in a fucked up fantasy that left a foul taste in her mouth upon smoking weed and consuming whiskey. Morale, after a good long cry and runny mascara, explained the wasting away of her morals.
“I wrote ‘deadbeat generation’ says Morale, “years ago at a time in my life where I was partying too much and numbing myself with substance so I didn’t have to acknowledge the painful things I was going through. I had just gotten out of a break up, I was dead broke and trying to figure out what I was doing with my life, my parents split and my mom moved across the country. I also was dealing with a lot of insecurities, my depression, and unresolved trauma from my childhood. I wrote it from the perspective of being stuck in the in between. There’s so much pressure from society and from everyone else to have our lives figured out, when all we truly want is to feel something.”
One would probably link to compare her lyricaly candid place in pop’s pantheon as a seraph of the dawn, a dedicated disciple of “Queen of the Clouds’”(“High all the time/To keep you off my mind” anoints “Too scared to fly so we get high to stay alive”).
Sonically shifting towards a darker direction like her popular musical peers Lorde, Tove Lo, and Halsey, ‘Deadbeat Generation’ positions Morale among a caught up degenerate class of casual sex, hot mess know-it-alls who really don’t know anything at all. Even as a habitual reveller after dealing with an ex-flame, she still came to resist the urge and figured some things out, and now the rising sultry pop singer is ready to use some other worldly quirks to her advantage that she just can’t shake. Still a badass nonetheless, a newly idolized future fashion goth icon amongst downtrodden art geniuses and fellow rejects, and is more or less, an outsider… not that she gives a damn!
Morale was born in 1994, making her instantly cool and something to envy. She’s rough around the edges, memories and baggage, and is most likely inspired by the moody mid-to-late-nineties grunge-punk scene (ocean blue hair, distressed shirting, hollow out fishnet stockings, a triple layer lock chain necklace, and a laced up dominatrix belt). Jessica Morale is not only a cool anti-establishment pop diva, but also a cooler dresser.
She then took the scowling shock value a step further on the unapologetic and empowering feminist anthem ‘GIRLS!’ featuring Alex Ran as if there was an urgency to bring what was directly missing from pop music, and that is the will to be dangerous. However, by using that direct danger to defy the patriarchy and empower women to be whoever they want to be in spite of the trials and tribulations they must go through to be who they are, “Cause we got ambition and we gonna destroy your traditions.”
Morale arrived like a piece of art and has fully embraced the angry feminist in herself, and courageously so. She will not stay silent. It would not have been “morally” logical to allow abusive men whose only intentions are to make women feel unsafe and inferior. Like a popping balloon, It’s an impressive blow away to hear her most by far “commercial” pop jam of dreamy-bed booming sub bass, ethereal synths, soaring vocals, brilliant songwriting and bitchy crass honest lyrics. “Let’s go/I can play the role that you want me to be/But it’s my destiny/Control ‘cause I’m Aphrodite/Don’t give a fuck if you don’t like me,” she sings on GIRLS!
Alex Ran then follows and softly vocalizes, “Take back what you said/Don’t ya mansplain me/I’m not a bitch for saying what I’m feeling/Take back what you did/You know you can’t/Rather be a woman than a man.”
Jessica Morale is hoping to redefine the word “artist” in the 21st century. The future of the music industry is for the new melancholic pop star’s taking and she’s not afraid of constantly reinventing and challenging herself. Phases confirms that this is not a blazing one-and-done dark lust saga about a fierce outsider with a hit-making form of art therapy, but about a woman fiercely creating without a break to social tackle authentic experiences through love, sex, drugs, loss, uncertainty, and empowerment.
“Growing up,” she expresses, “I was always afraid of change. But like the phases of the moon or a butterfly emerging from her cocoon, we all have to go through stages and painful situations in order to evolve into something beautiful. I’m learning not to be afraid anymore.”
Call it a riot. Together, we are all beautiful catastrophes. Morale is taking over and she’s becoming the baddest versions of herself. This is just the start of her whirlwind phase towards iconic pop status for a long career and “no matter how messed up and incomplete we sometimes feel,” Morale admits, “we’re all a work in progress and perfectly flawed. Every painful experience we go through as human beings allows us to become the person we’re meant to be. I just want to remind people that they are never alone.” Life is chaos in a bankrupt world. But it’s damn sure worth it.
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Growing up as a child in a Christian household raised by a single mother and grandmother during the 1990s was such an awe-inspiring adventure. In his Elementary School days, he took a feeling of attraction towards rock ‘n’ roll music as he heard "Beast of Burden" by The Rolling Stones, and "Don’t Let Me Down" by The Beatles playing from his uncle’s 1970 Chevy Malibu garage. Records by Madonna, Alanis Morissette, the Fugees, and Lil Suzy were also being played throughout the house by his mother, dressed in a black leather biker jacket and who would occasionally put the radio on blast.
In 7th grade back in 2002/2003 school year, Mclaude had written the number-one narrative story amongst the class and caught the attention of his then teacher, Mrs. DeFeo as she called him upfront and said “Anthony, your story on ‘The Volcano King’ is incredible. You should be a writer.” Ever since that day, Mclaude in his rebel without a cause era has always kept those words in mind as a way to keep pushing himself past the limits. As fifteen years past, he enrolled himself in Cumberland County College studying journalism and wrote for the university’s Award-Winning Newspaper, The Voice as he grew as a creative and tenacious reporter with a nose for news, and a passion for community journalism. In spite of the blessings outshining the hard times, he received the opportunity to be a staff writer for a local news outlet, The People’s Press of Millville, where he has written five articles, two press releases, page growth, and has received encouraging feedback from the community.
Today he is currently working for the magazines of Eclectic Shades and Rock at Night.
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