Jaye Jayle : After Alter
Where Evan Patterson’s band Young Widows packs noise-rock bravado charging out of the gate, his music with Jaye Jayle is more intimate. Began as a solo project for Patterson, Jaye Jayle eventually morphed into a band, which also supported Emma Ruth Rundle—who is also Patterson’s ex-wife—as her live backing band for a brief time. Between the group’s instrumentation and the commanding presence of Patterson’s voice, the music of Jaye Jayle is heavy with emotion, a quality that’s very much alive on the band’s fifth studio release, After Alter.
Opener “Father Fiction” begins with strums of distortion heavy guitar; as the strums drone, an electronic whirl slowly comes to life. Patterson’s vocals soon emerge, his voice striking a balance between gritty and soothing, hypnotic amid the instrumentation. Those booms of guitar distortion shift into a minimalist rhythm, accompanied by a minimal drumbeat, as Patterson speaks of the contentious ideologies of organized religion. Over time, the arrangement swells in intensity, providing a more aggressive edge. That heaviness morphs in the following song, “Doctor Green,” which sees the band’s instrumentation leaning into a bluesy drawl. While the song is relatively straightforward in delivery, the fuzzy guitar tone and the steady pounce of drums and bass create a rhythm so catchy that it’s hard not to become caught up in it.
While Jaye Jayle plays around more with noise rock on After Alter—and even a little bit of ambient noise—at the heart of this album is the blues. Though the record contains some mellower songs, there are numerous moments in which Jaye Jayle lean into a heavier kind of blues. On “A Blackout,” as the distortion-heavy guitar rhythm rides forth, the drums blast off as the piano plays underneath and drones of distortion play over. It’s an exhilarating barrage of sound, that chaos elevating Patterson’s lyrics as he speaks of a homeless protagonist worshipping glowing billboards from a dark alleyway.
Among all these bluesy, noise-rock songs, “Small Dark Voices” stands out as a unique outlier. The band shifts gears into electronic ambient territory—which isn’t anything new for them (2020’s Prisyn focused on just such a sound), but it’s a welcoming twist for After Alter. Patterson’s voice sounds even more mesmerizing over the waves of melodic synthesizer. Over the course of nine minutes, the drums and synth take center stage, each respective performance offering new dynamics to its atmosphere and flow.
Patterson has proven himself to be a versatile musician, and with After Alter, he and his bandmates have created a riveting display of noisy, bluesy rock. Packed with electrifying and emotional performances, After Alter reestablishes Jaye Jayle as a force of creative experimentation.
Label: Pelagic
Year: 2025
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