If I Let It Quiet is the fourth album by the Salt Lake City-based singer-songwriter Josaleigh Pollett, and as is expected by this point in a career that has stretched for over fifteen years, including a fruitful run of releases with producer and co-writer Jordan Watko. The latest project is an absolute treasure trove of textural, dynamic and living electronic pop music.
With every new expression of yourself comes a fresh set of challenges to face, and the new LP was born out of a stretch of separation, with Watko relocating to Japan, the duo found themselves separated by oceans, destined to transmit and create over great distances, describing it as a cross-continent collaboration.
If I Let It Quiet crackles into life with lo-fi charm, with a collage of conversations overlapping a building synth line, Shed Piano, Birds is cryptic and atmospheric, a perfect gateway for what the wider record has to offer. Following on from this is Cherry, which takes the warmth of the opener, applying a tender acoustic number before Pollett sees the track off into the digital world, whirring into the next.
Continuing onwards with the track The Witness, Pollett sings: “I’ll tell you my name when it’s in a new language. Will you tell me I’m your favourite version of me and watch while I change it”. There’s something deliciously impenetrable about this shapeshifting exchange, and against distorted electronica it recollects the lyricism of the late and great Trish Keenan of Broadcast.
Offering a further thought on the song, the songwriter said: “The Witness is a song about knowing that to be seen and held and understood, you must first see and hold and understand. It’s about love, beyond limits and gender, across multiple universes. It’s also a little bit about deleting my Twitter account…”
From one Warp Records luminary to another, Bed of Quiet (which we premiered here) opens with a flavour of Music Has The Right to Children era Boards of Canada. The track is a portrayal of the sleepless and the insomniac, “So why can’t I get to sleep without it spinning round in my head all sides of why I went right then left when I had sight of my end?”.
This is a project that quite literally comes alive at every turn; there are vast sonic experiences to be found here, some are out in full view, and some hide beneath the surfaces, like a network of underground wires keeping the whole thing ticking. Radio Player is above ground, atmospheric and totally electric. Pollett surges forward amidst a crescendo of synths and drums, saving every ounce of conviction she has for the final wave of the song.
Concluding with Tacit, the duo leave through the same door they entered in, but leave nothing but a lasting impression, summoning up what can only be described as an electrical storm, pushing the swirling, shimmering finale into overdrive mode.
If I Let It Quiet is a whirlwind affair, the opportunity for repeated listening beckons here; every step further you take into the centre of this glowing, sparking dreamworld, Josaleigh Pollett and Jordan Watko will see it climb higher and higher on your end-of-year appraisal. Submerge yourself in all it has to offer, and it very well may be top of the list.
If I Let It Quiet (July 24th, 2026) Audio Antihero / Lavender Vinyl