Jaime Wyatt’s capacity for transformation is on full display with her recent album Feel Good. For Wyatt, these reinventions are not an act of whimsy — it’s a matter of survival, as is made clear on this new cut. If Wyatt got famous for her brash outlaw country (literally — Wyatt was once detained) on her debut, hit the ground running with her honky-tonk phase on Neon Cross, then her triumphant Feel Good sees her coming into her own as an artist and a human.
These songs are slinky and muscular, fitting from producer Adrian Quesada, a member of the Black Pumas. Wyatt leaned into improvisation on this album — from songwriting to the music itself, Wyatt pursued what, well, felt good. This is where that radical transformation comes in: Feel Good is about embodying pleasure in all its forms, a ’70s country-inspired companion to Janelle Monae’s Age of Pleasure.
“Love Is a Place” is one of Wyatt’s most explicitly queer songs yet, and it brims with tenderness. Wyatt’s free-floating cover of the Dead’s “Althea” similarly tickles the endorphins. But Feel Good isn’t just about the good times — “The Fugitive” and “Hold Me One Last Time” touch on heartbreak. But this time, Wyatt can view these experiences from a distance and with tenderness, rather than the self-loathing devil-may-care persona she took on for Neon Cross. Here we find Wyatt making peace with her past and reveling in the joys in front of her now.