Close to the Mystery, the debut album from Jackie West, was released in 2024 and offered torch-song emotions, indie folk, and a healthy serving of shoegaze gestures. On her latest album, Silent Century, West doubles down, offering more of the same while expanding on those vibes with greater focus, subtle lineup changes, and a strong collection of new songs.
With West on guitar and vocals, she’s accompanied here by Dan Knishkowy on guitar and organ, Nico Osborne on bass and synths, Sean Mullins on drums and synths, Katie Von Schleicher on synths, and Nate Mendelsohn on saxophone. These are all artists who live comfortably within Knishkowy’s Ruination label community, so the musicianship clicks naturally (West and Knishkowy are the record’s producers, and Von Schleicher and Mendelsohn engineered and mixed the album).
The bulk of Silent Century was tracked live, with the band learning the tracks on the spot. The result is a deeply organic and emotional execution, evident immediately with the downbeat album opener, “All Falls Down”, as West’s vocals are wrapped in cavernous echo alongside acoustic guitar strums and simmering organ. The sound is timeless and untethered to any genre or era.
On the wistful title track, the song’s pop-leaning folk feel works well with what West refers to as an exploration of silence. “Some experiences,” she explains, “Especially intimate or spiritual—communicate without language, moving through us like traditions or instincts that endure quietly for generations. ‘Silent Century’ draws on the Taoist idea that silence is a medium of understanding—the flower doesn’t explain itself, and water doesn’t lecture the stone; yet both express and reshape the world over vast spans of time.”
Elsewhere, jagged electric guitars give “Thunder Ideal” the right amount of sludge and grit while still maintaining a tuneful course. The mesmerizing “Course of Action” enacts a warm, woozy groove that slowly builds with keyboards and guitars gradually entering the scene as West describes occasionally grisly imagery (“People as bombs fly / People dead inside”).
“Lovesick Doll”, one of the record’s many high points, is given an ethereal treatment, with rapid acoustic guitar fingerpicking melding with reverb and synths that propel West’s song into an almost experimental musical orbit. The earnest pull of “These Are Not Sweet Girls”, named after a poetry anthology, evokes the naked emotion of vintage Joni Mitchell and the haunting beauty of Julee Cruise.
The finest moment on Silent Century, however, is arguably the epic closing track, “Offer”, clocking in at nine-and-a-half minutes and bringing to mind epics from the likes of Bob Dylan and Lou Reed. With the band providing a loping groove behind her (punctuated by splendid lead guitar work from Knishkowy), West dives headlong into spoken-word verses. Recorded entirely in one first take, the subject matter ranges from generational trauma to quantum theory to the power of friendship.
“I guess we don’t really need to make sense in this life,” goes one verse, “I guess just do some things and feel what happens after when you do it / Maybe accept that you hurt someone / And figure out where the fuck that came from in your childhood / And just try to do things a little differently so you don’t fucking hurt people / ‘Cause when you hurt people you hurt yourself.”
This kind of unfiltered, direct, stream-of-consciousness approach works beautifully and underscores West’s brutal honesty without ever veering into pretentiousness. It also shows Jackie West growing from an already immensely satisfying debut album to a follow-up that sees her taking chances, continuing to write beautiful, emotionally striking music, and, in the words “These Are Not Sweet Girls”, “Grab the bright star / Don’t let it out.”