Jess McAvoy

Melbourne's Jess McAvoy has teamed up with Marty Brown (Clare Bowditch and the Feeding Set) as co-producer to create her best album to date.

There's something complete to this package that was lacking in previews albums, En Masse and Into The Dark. As a songwriter McAvoy has gained weight and with Brown's impeccable style, they've come up with something fine together. There's a grittier edge As The Sun Falls that shifts McAvoy out of the friendly acoustic pop stream in which she was floating around and into a harder, heavier sound that altogether suits her to a tee.

McAvoy has found a red hot band for this recording, including good friends Clare Bowditch and Lis Stringer on backing vocals. There's a stirring string section on Part Of Me along with some nimble bass playing and lingering piano, all bringing out the sultriness in McAvoy;s voice. Cake, with its syncopated beats and pulsing bass line, is yum. Likewise How The Hell is a throbbing, gutsy, wrecking ball of a track that brings out an entirely new side to McAvoy as she howls "How The Hell d'you get into my soul?"

Despite the grungier nature of this album, established fans of McAvoy should not despair because the sweet-sounding, vocals and the gentle strumming of guitar they've become accustom to are all till on show. This songstress is still innately grounded in her acoustic roots, despite her attempts to electrify her soul. Thumbs up to a very cool album filled with plenty of verve.

- Kaz Mitchell - Inpress, Melbourne

This is truly a beautiful release. Into the Dark not only crystallizes the gorgeous melancholy of her songwriting, but finally does justice to that wonderful frayed beauty in her voice, that husk versus honey, and the raw introspection of her lyrics. An album to treasure.
Nick Snelling, Beat Magazine

Four and a half stars Just as the CD store racks are teeming with earnest surfy blokes with slide guitars and angst-ridden bands of faux punks sporting eyeliner and technicolour tattoos, it can be hard to sort the wheat from the chaff when it comes to rootsy female singer-songwriters.
Let me make it easier for you: forget the rest, Jess McAvoy is one of the best. On Into the Dark, her second full-length record as a wholly independent artist, McAvoy provides a stunning spectrum of songs and emotions. Bookended by the gorgeous Easy and More Words, the album explores the many facets of love and life, and most listeners will find more than a few songs resonating personally.
The title track's arrangement is a gorgeous blend of Je t'aime (Moi Non Plus) and Breakfast in Bed, as a lazy organ hums beneath McAvoy's velvety voice and plinking guitar. Apart from her astute songwriting, it's McAvoy's voice that steals the show - equal parts Chrissie Hynde, Dusty Springfield and beautiful Australian country babe - no chaff in sight.
Clem Bastow, The Age - The Age Entertainment Guide

Three and a half stars

With each album Perth/Melbourne singer Jess McAvoy has shown that her folk roots are just that, roots not binders. This time around there's a real sense of sophistication in the songwriting which sometimes has a touch of the (non-rock'n'roll) 1950s and occasionally leans towards adult pop of the sort Delta and Missy still strive for but miss as they lack McAvoy's soul. "I'm a round hole in a box of square pegs," McAvoy says in You Do. She is, and hopefully she keeps rejecting the square.

Bernard Zuel
- The Sydney Morning Herald