IAN SWEET's 'Shiverstruck' Is Jilian Medford's Most Confident Record Yet
Jilian Medford has spent four albums under the IAN SWEET name pushing her songwriting into stranger and stranger corners, but Shiverstruck, made with producer Ben H. Allen, pulls back toward something plainer and warmer — acoustic guitars, live drums, and strings standing in for the studio experimentation that defined her earlier work. The result, per Northern Transmissions’ Evan Zuri, is “her most confident, whole album to date.”
The Sonic Breakdown
The Production & Mix
The Low-End: Allen’s analog approach favors real room tone over processed effects, giving the record’s live drums and strings a warmth that lets Medford’s vocal sit up front rather than buried in texture.
The Spatial Dynamics: The commitment to lyrical honesty runs through the whole record — Medford prioritizes the words over any studio flourish, trusting plainspoken lines to do the emotional work a bigger production might otherwise carry.
Standout Performance
“Criminal Kissing” is the standout, no contest — lush, driving indie-pop built around the familiar ache of rekindling a past relationship, and the clearest showcase of how far Medford’s willing to let a vocal take crack open before pulling back.
Why It’s Certified
“Jilian” serves as the record’s emotional center, Medford turning the self-examination inward with what Zuri calls “brutal clarity,” while closer “Speed Demon” rides a marching-band drum pattern and blooming synths out on the record’s most triumphant note. Not every stretch here swings as hard — the title track and a couple of the middle cuts feel more like connective tissue than statements — but the highs are high enough that the dips barely register. Four albums in, Medford sounds like she’s finally trusting her first instincts instead of reaching for a bigger idea, and the record is intimate without ever feeling small. Certified great.