Since releasing her acclaimed debut EP Even Born Again in 2008, Texas-bred singer-songwriter Sarah Jaffe has enjoyed an impressive solo career on her own—but she’s also no stranger to successful collaborations (she co-wrote and sang on Eminem’s “Bad Guy” and contributed vocals to the Disney/Pixar short The Blue Umbrella scored by Jon Brion, among others).
Such was the case when she connected with producer Aaron Kelley last year, intending to partner with him on a collection of songs to shop for other artists. What followed was an intense writing session, with Jaffe channeling songs that helped her deal with the emotions of a recent heartbreak. Many of these struck too close to home, with Jaffe ultimately deciding she couldn’t part ways and needed to record them herself. Two companion EPs—This Is Better Pt. 1 and This Is Better Pt. 2—featuring seven new songs will be released on July 19 through Kirtland Records.
“Aaron Kelley has been such an amazing collaborative partner,” Sarah Jaffe reveals. “When this collaboration began last summer, our intention was to create songs to pitch to other artists. I ended up keeping a good portion of the songs to release. ‘Blame It’ was one of the tracks that I first considered to be just a hook to pitch. But I think the longer Aaron and I sat with the song, the more I liked it. There’s just something hypnotic about a song that doesn’t necessarily have to say much to hold your attention.”
With shades of Everything but the Girl and Sade, the hypnotic electr0-tinged “Blame It” is from This Is Better Pt.1. Listen to to the track below.
