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Album of the Month: Jacob Alon – In Limerence
If you’re a fan of Adrianne Lenker, Jeff Buckley, or Nick Drake, you’ll feel right at home here - vulnerability spun into something magic.
'In Limerence, the stunning debut from Jacob Alon, is a heartfelt journey through the highs and lows of obsessive romantic longing. Produced by the legendary Dan Carey, it drops on May 30th - be sure to grab a copy of the Specialist Retail Exclusive Vinyl from your favourite indie record shop!
We caught up with Jacob to chat about how 'In Limerence' came to life:
Hi, Jacob! First off, Limerence isn't a word you come across often - what inspired you to choose that title?
Hey! It just felt like the perfect way to sum up a feeling that runs through each song on the record. To me, limerence describes an obsessive romantic attraction to an idealised version of someone, a projection you place onto them to cope with a deep sense of absence in your life. That’s what it feels like to me, and those are the emotions that resonate through every track on the album.
The album features many field recordings and samples - do any of these sounds hold special significance, or are they tied to particular places or memories for you?
Yes, you're bang on. On Liquid Gold '25, one of my best friends, Rory, and I walked around the streets of Soho in the rain on a busy evening, recording the sounds of the nightlife. I worked there at one point, and a few of the experiences that influenced the writing of that song happened in that area. Soho is a place with such rich queer history, so it made sense to capture those sounds there.
The other field recordings on the album are samples from my early childhood. My mum recently moved house and found a bunch of unlabelled VHS tapes. When we got them digitised, I discovered a lot of lost memories - parts of me that I’d felt disconnected from for a long time. These tapes were from when I was born until about five or six, the time when attachment wounds can form, setting the foundation for the attachment styles we carry into adulthood. It felt like a moment of synchronicity, reflecting on the patterns of connection I form now - and where they might have started. It was both a deep moment of healing and a painful look back at certain points in my past.
Watching that footage wasn’t always easy. The line between memory and dreams can be hard to define, and even the past, from a quantum perspective, might not be fully certain. There was this sense that the boundary between what was real and what wasn’t seemed blurred. And when I’m in a state of limerence, it can feel like I’m losing my grip on reality - like it’s hard to tell the difference between what’s real and what’s fantasy.
Being from Northwest Fife, what aspects of Scotland do you carry with you that might not be obvious?
Oh, that’s such a good one! So much. One of the things that’s influenced me a lot is the brutal honesty, the gritty truthfulness. There’s a brutality in the landscape. It’s a harsh environment, and that shapes a certain stoicism. The part of Fife I’m from is quite grey and brutalist, but there’s so much beauty in it. There’s this fine line between rich nature and the stark, ugly sixties council housing. Both of these elements are so present, and you can’t hide behind them. You have to find your own beauty in the small places. For me growing up, it was about finding the beauty in the small cracks and creatures between the pavements and slabs - that’s where I found magic.
Oh, one more thing, I’ve actually been reflecting on what my Scottish identity means to me recently. In the Celtic lands, there’s this deep sense of story and lore. The Celts were incredible at telling stories through nature. There’s this idea in Celtic folklore about the Otherworld - this parallel dimension where time is non-linear. It actually beat the Marvel Universe to the concept of the multiverse! The Otherworld is where all the knowledge of the universe is kept, and where fairies and creatures live, causing mischief but also holding wisdom. The voices and the artwork are influenced by this, reflecting the unclear boundary between these worlds.
The vinyl has an amazing cover - what’s the story behind it, and who designed it?
I wish I fully knew what it is. It was done by my friend Rory - he did all of the art. I did bits and pieces, but it was mainly him. It actually started off as something smaller, a contorted figure contained within a smaller box. I didn’t realize this at the time, but when you put something onto vinyl, you have to leave a bit of room so the edges can curve around the sleeve. When we expanded it, the edges blurred out, and it became bigger than it was originally. When I saw it, I didn’t know why, but I was really sure that was the cover.
It wasn’t until after reflecting on it that I realized it had taken something real and pulled it out to fit an ideal I’d created. I felt there was a parallel between that and limerence - how you can contort something to your own desires. There’s something haunting about it - mutilated and incomplete but also completed. I find there’s a pain in it that feels resonant. I still wish I could tell you what it is!
And lastly, what role do you think record shops and vinyl still play in music culture today?
I’ve come to appreciate recently the magic of music being made physical. It’s funny how that concept feels more outlandish to me than invisible waves beaming through the air. It’s a beautiful and precious feeling to really own the physical manifestation of the music you really love. It allows you to listen and appreciate an album in a very mindful way - to experience it as a body of work. To run your fingers across the sleeve and read the little secret details and watch the needle dancing across the vinyl as it plays. These little experiences to me are very magical and immersive and mindful.
It’s like taking time to really enjoy the process of making a good cup of coffee - the ritual brings you in closer for a more intimate experience. In the times where I practise this ritual with the records I own, it brings me great joy and it’s a very necessary relief from the fast-food consumerist diet of streaming platforms - and helps to support artists and music culture directly too!
Don’t miss out - grab the Specialist Retail Exclusive Vinyl from your favourite indie record shop and immerse yourself in the captivating magic of In Limerence when it’s released on May 30!
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