June McDoom draws on her Jamaican heritage and love of folk music to create a dreamlike second album exploring family, memory and identity.
Have you ever had a dream so magical that you try to go back to sleep and enjoy it a little more? Next time you have that feeling, listen to Follow The Light by June McDoom instead. The album, released in October this year, is a collection of hazy folk melodies, beautiful harmonies and Jamaican influences.
Harmony is something McDoom references often when discussing her work, describing it as ‘the thing that reaches her, and now it is the thing she effortlessly reaches for.’ It translates through her latest album, capturing a dream space in music that balances ease of listening with a clear passion and dedication to her work.
McDoom taps into a rich family history; brought up in a Jamaican household in Florida, the threads of the people who have shaped her are evident throughout Follow The Light. Her father, a sound-system enthusiast, introduced her to the bass-heavy sounds of Jamaican music, while her grandfather, Colin Smith, was a musician who helped preserve Jamaica’s traditional mento music. These influences sit alongside the folk music McDoom discovered independently as a young woman, citing artists like Simon & Garfunkel and Vashti Bunyan who led her to shape her musical uniqueness.
Rather than choosing between these seemingly polar worlds, McDoom finds a way to bring them together. Folk melodies and acoustic guitar are met with deep basslines, echoing percussion and hazy electronic textures. The result is an album that never feels particularly interested in fitting into one genre. Instead, it takes the best parts of each and allows them to exist together, often in unexpectedly beautiful ways.
My highlight of the album may be its opening track, ‘Human Angel’, a song that feels like McDoom is personally guiding you into a dream state. Gentle guitar picking and the sound of wind introduce the track before her almost weightless vocals begin to layer over one another. The song unfolds in a wonderfully comforting way, with reggae-inflected rhythm and delicate instrumentation creating a sound that feels intrinsically familiar and entirely new.
‘Without You’ is one of those songs that makes you want to close your eyes for a minute and forget whatever it was you were doing. Something that could easily exist as a stripped-back folk ballad gradually expands atmospherically, with glistening harp and layers of vocals. You pick up a real sense of longing from McDoom’s delivery, but it isn’t overwhelming. Even when the instrumentation builds, the song retains an intimacy that makes it feel as though you’re listening to something quite personal.
Tying it back into family, which is perhaps the album’s most significant influence, nowhere is this more apparent than on ‘Grandpa’. Featuring a recording of McDoom’s grandfather, the track is brief but incredibly touching. His deep, weathered voice sits in striking contrast to her delicate vocals, creating a conversation that feels wonderfully unguarded. McDoom is proving that musical influences aren’t always found in record collections or the artists we admire, but also within the people around us.
For an album that feels so easy to get lost in, there's actually quite a lot to think about. There is also a more introspective side to Follow The Light. Tracks like ‘Outside The Window’ and ‘Memory’ explore identity, nostalgia and the complicated relationship we have with the people we used to be. While the album is undoubtedly beautiful to listen to, there is more going on beneath the surface than its dreamy arrangements might initially suggest. McDoom seems interested in the way our identities are shaped by the people we love, the memories we carry and the versions of ourselves we leave behind. Obviously that’s no foreign concept to explore in music, but McDoom makes it feel a little easier to deal with.
For all its intricacies, Follow The Light never feels like an album that demands too much from its listener. It is the sort of record you can put on and let wash over you, only to discover something new when you return to it. McDoom has created a sound that feels entirely her own, bringing together generations of musical influence with a gentle confidence that makes the album all the more special. Much like that dream you wish you could return to, Follow The Light leaves you wanting just a little more time inside its world.