Newcomer Jana Mila’s debut, Chameleon, is a prophetic title. Though it’s taken from a song about changing to please others, it could just as easily be a descriptor of her sound, which seamlessly moves from Americana to Country to Laurel Canyon throwback folk to classic 1970s rock and pop, all coming across as natural and unforced.
The Dutch musician came to Nashville to record the record with Todd Lombardo (who also co-produced Kacey Musgraves’s brilliant Golden Hour record). With this record, Mila shares some of the same qualities, both in her self-confessional lyrical style and in her beautiful, unrushed vocals, that make Phoebe Bridgers and The Sunday’s Harriet Wheeler so irresistible. The vocals on “In Between” – a grief-heavy but wildly beautiful song about not trying to grow numb to pain and loneliness – are particularly ethereal and stick with you long after the song is over. The album opens on the delicate folk number “Like Only Lovers Could,” but quickly slips into a more country vibe on “Somebody New” and then goes back to the folk route on the charming “Chameleon.” With “I Wasn’t Gonna,” she even branches out into pop rock. There is a strength to these songs that belie the fact that this is her first album. Even on a song like the haunting, character-driven “Rosie,” one she debuted at 17 for a local contest for songwriters in her native Netherlands, she shows the maturity of a veteran songwriter.
The album’s theme is given away with the title Chameleon. It’s a self-reckoning about the balance between wanting to be liked by others and true to yourself at the same time. “The album is a conversation with myself, a way of getting to know myself better,” Mila says. “There are little fears woven into every lyric, but there’s also advice to myself. I’m writing to find a part of myself that has some wisdom.”
Though many of the lyrics here are deeply personal at times, there is a universal resonance to some of the thoughts and struggles that are relatable to many. The album closes on the stunning track “The City,” another emotionally heavy track that bridges folk and pop. On any other album, this would be the obvious lead single and the centerpiece of the entire record, but the fact that it’s tacked on at the end, almost as an afterthought, goes to show just how many powerful songs are competing for the listener’s attention on this record.
