★★★★★
On the title track of her third album, Don't Disconnect, singer-songwriter Sarah Jaffe asks, "Do you still feel me?" It's a valid yet rhetorical question given Jaffe's departure from her bedroom folk debut LP, Suburban Nature. Now embracing electro-pop, Jaffe has followed a similar trajectory to Everything But the Girl following Tracey Thorn's collaboration with Massive Attack: forming the Dividends, a writing partnership with hip-hop producer S1, the duo's "Bad Guy" opened Eminem's 2013 album,...
- www.popmatters.com
2014-09-17
★★★★★
Deep inside the whirling dervish of Sarah Jaffe's third full-length
- www.austinchronicle.com
2014-08-28
★★★★★
Sarah Jaffe's Don't Disconnect marks a confident trajectory toward experimental pop in the vein of St. Vincent and My Brightest Diamond. Just below that slickly produced glimmer, many disparate genres -- among them R&B;, folk and electro-pop -- are layered to satisfying effect. Midlake drummer McKenzie Smith, who produced the album, balances fuzzed-out guitar, driving bass hooks and droning synths expertly built to highlight Jaffe's resonating, assured and rounded mezzo for an album suited for...
- www.wonderingsound.com
2014-08-19
★★★★★
Gone are the humble, acoustic beginnings that marked Texas singer/songwriter Sarah Jaffe's debut EP in 2008. So too are the influences that lead her to perform with alternative and rock icons like Jon Brion and Dinosaur Jr./Sebadoh's Lou Barlow. Instead, on her third full-length studio album, Don't Disconnect , Jaffe sounds like she's reaching for pop levels of musicality and notoriety...
- www.pastemagazine.com
2014-08-20
★★★★★
Denton songstress Sarah Jaffe settled comfortably into indie singer-songwriter mode with 2010 debut Suburban Nature, separated from the crowd by her trembling but powerful voice. Sophomore effort The Body Wins is a stylistic sea change for Jaffe, lavishly decorated with programming, horns, and strings. The digitized, bass-laden intro of "Glorified High" gives way to a piano-driven chorus, combining technology and raw instrumentation...
- www.austinchronicle.com
2012-07-16
★★★★★
Denton, Texas native Sarah Jaffe creates atmospheres more than songs. Some are sparse declarations of delicate emotions, such as the gentle "Paul". Others are more layered treatments of piano, drums, and electronic instruments, such as the moody "The Way a Sound Leaves a Room". And some are downright busy with musical gingerbreading, such as the silly "Glorified High". And in every case, Jaffe uses her voice to center the song's sonics and transport the listener to another self-contained world...
- www.popmatters.com
2012-07-12
★★★★★
Who the sweet fuck is Sarah Jaffe? On her mesmerizing third album, The Body Wins, she doesn't seem too concerned with easy answers--only with dizzying studio finesse and bitch-slapping eclecticism. "Paul" is a slow-burning quiet storm of orchestral flourishes; the title track layers fragments of tribal rhythms, jazz piano, funky brass stabs and gurgling electronics. She outdoes herself with the spooky, sultry "Hooray for Love," which sounds like Norah Jones during a sonic hangover.
- filtermagazine.com
2012-05-07
★★★★★
Sarah Jaffe's 2010 debut full-length Suburban Nature began with simple measured strums on her acoustic guitar. The album wasn't completely spare--eventually slow pulls on the violin colored that opening song and Jaffe's quivering vocals echoed to fill the empty spaces. But overall, it occupied that familiar ground between folk, roots rock and indie pop. Her follow-up The Body Wins, however, starts off more like Rufus Wainwright's operatic electro-pop masterpiece Want One...
- www.pastemagazine.com
2012-04-30
★★★★★
Denton's Sarah Jaffe sneaks in during the first verse of "Before You Go": "My heart pretends not to know how it ends." It's a crusher, but her voice is soft and haunted; she's a singer-songwriter more in the vein of Jana Hunter than Patty Griffin. Suburban Nature, her first LP, lures you in and then creeps you out with its intensity...
- www.austinchronicle.com
2010-06-25