Album Review: Bad Baby, Sarah Jaffe

Singer-songwriter Sarah Jaffe stepped away from the melodic ballads that characterized her first albums with 2014’s Don’t Disconnect, but it is her newest album, Bad Baby, that proves her amazing growth as an artist. While Jaffe’s earlier soft ballads are entrancing, her new music is fresh and exciting. At first, her acoustically suited voice might not be what you would expect to accompany the synth-heavy beats on Bad Baby, but the combination makes the album stand out as a refreshing contribution to electro pop.

Bad Baby combines 80’s synth pop with a Sara Bareilles-like attention to lyrics and vocal melodies. The album begins with the slow burning ballad ‘Synthetic Love.’ Jaffe’s vocals float up alongside synthesized bass beats. The music is ominous and reminiscent of the Stranger Things theme song in the best way. Sinuous ‘No Worries’ and title track ‘Bad Baby’ are songs to get up and dance to — or at the very least toe-tap to if you’re not one for shaking it.

The Texas musician’s experience in film scoring and hip-hop over the last few years is also evident in songs like ‘As Ever’ which mixes in some orchestral instruments and ‘Freaking Out’ which plays with rhythm and rhyme as Jaffe sings, “Did you ever wonder, hunger, know / Was it just for fun, girl, huh, girl, no.”

Jaffe’s contemporary take on 80’s pop maintains familiar synthetic beats but adds a fresh take on vocal melody and lyrics, marking her as not only a singer-songwriter, but a unique musical artist.

Bad Baby comes out July 7. Stream it here in the meantime.