Now here’s a debut album that would have been a Qobuzissime…if we hadn’t missed it. American poet Suzanne Vallie withdrew to the Californian coast to write her music in Big Sur, a place of respite for Jack Kerouac in his novel with the same name. Following a break-up, Vallie wrote Love Lives Where Rules Die whilst on the road. This pell-mell tale of romantic disappointment and beautiful scenery is set to modern folk music that is gentle and melancholic with beautiful guitar loops (Beauty from the Blue Country, Love Lives Where Rules Die) as well as country (Love Letter, Go On Down to Mary’s) and even pop. Between the strings and the tambourines, it’s Vallie’s vocals that steal the show: delicate and languishing, they convey raw emotion and even pick up the pace at times (Morro Bay). Recorded far away from the Pacific in a centuries-old church in New York, this opus, with its heartache and 70’s feel, makes us want to head straight for the coastline. © Charlotte Saintoin/Qobuz