Lefuturewave
Lefuturewave is a music blog based in the Netherlands. We feature emerging as well as established artists.
When you make a record that addresses the things you’ve never spoken out loud, it takes a great deal of courage. Jaime French, comedian, YouTuber, creator of five million loyalists across the internet, has spent years making people laugh. On The Ripple Effect, her debut EP, out now, she makes them feel something else entirely.
The four-track record is by French’s own description “very dark, very raw, very real.” She isn’t exaggerating. These are songs concerning generational trauma, chronic insomnia, toxic family ties, and the slow, hard work of healing.
Lead single The Hunter arrives first and makes an impact immediately. Based on the experience of chronic insomnia and the therapy-informed understanding that sleeplessness often traces back to childhood trauma the conscious mind has long since buried, it’s an urgent, propulsive pop song that sits comfortably alongside the work of Adele and Florence Welch. French doubles as hero and villain in the accompanying video, chasing and being chased, which captures the song’s central tension to a tee.
The Ripple Effect (which also has a visual) is the EP’s emotional backbone. A meditation on how your choices can travel through generations like a stone cast in water. It’s the type of song that asks difficult questions and doesn’t offer simple answers. French’s voice, shaped by a youth spent absorbing Heart, Alanis Morissette, and Tori Kelly, handles the weight of it beautifully.
Ties of Blood pushes further still, a slow-burning ballad about choosing to sever ties with a toxic family member, and dealing with the complicated grief that follows. It’s the EP’s most demanding listen and also its most rewarding.
Then comes Carry Me, and the record really goes another direction. Inspired by fifteen years of love and support from her husband Nick, it talks about surrender in the best sense, where you let someone else hold you until you’re ready to stand again. It closes the EP on a note of genuine warmth and hope.
The overall sound rocks. Tom Bukovac handles guitar and piano with a seasoned touch. Paul Moak adds guitar, chime, and various textures that give the record its atmospheric depth, while Tony Lucido on bass, Dave Cohen on keys, and Chris McHugh on drums form a rhythm section that knows exactly when to push and when to pull back. The background vocals, featuring Nick Purler, Wendy Moten, Rachael Lampa, and others, never overshadow French, making them exciting.
The Ripple Effect is a confident, emotionally focused debut that implies French has been working on these songs for a long time. Check it out below!
Lefuturewave is a music blog based in the Netherlands. We feature emerging as well as established artists.
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