Asher White – Jessica Pratt

Today, the NYC-by-way-of-Rhode Island multi-instrumentalist, writer and visual artist Asher White is releasing a full album cover of Jessica Pratt’s self-titled debut LP (out now on Joyful Noise).

The LP arrives following the 2025 release of Asher’s acclaimed LP 8 Tips For Full Catastrophe Living, which came out on Joyful Noise in September. The album constituted a real breakthrough for Asher, landing on several end of year lists from major publications, earning praise from the likes of Pitchfork, Rolling Stone, NPR, Hearing Things, Paste and Stereogum, who described Asher as “an Alex G-level prolific talent.”

The album is a long-gestating project for White, who began work on it as “a procrastination tactic” in 2023, and over the years of periodic work it has gradually expanded into an ambitious re-imagining of its source material as observed by no lesser authority than Jessica Pratt herself.

“White’s curiously inventive renditions took me by surprise,” says Pratt. “A broad sweep stylistically Read Asher’s thoughts on the release below:

as far as i’m concerned Jessica Pratt’s debut is an album of American standards: every single song is a true classic, cruel and sad and terribly hopeful, unfailingly melodic and sweet, like if Elliott Smith wrote a full album of “Say Yes”s. music writers often mention the timelessness of her songs—“this could’ve been written at any point in the last 100 years”, etc—but the focus on the pastiche aspect of her music threatens to undermine the simple fact of her craft, which is awe-inspiring. on her debut record the moments of immediate melodic pop genius (“Half Twain,” “Titles Under Pressure”) are sort of Trojan horses for the songs that unfurl themselves more slowly or take a little longer to set in (“Casper”, “Midnight Wheels”).

i first found this album on the cusp of my 21st birthday, deep in the winter of 2021, and I would walk circular miles inside a bitterly cold and mostly empty Providence late into the night etching these songs deep into my brain, where they became seeds in a perpetual state of half-germination. at some point it became one of those records i’d listened to so many times that i would find myself unconsciously singing phantom harmonies alongside it, or hearing arrangements that didn’t exist; eventually the specter of these imagined arrangements became substantive enough that i decided it would be a fun exercise to try and learn the whole record to actualize my fantasies. in 2023, as a procrastination tactic while finishing New Excellent Woman, i learned the songs of Jessica Pratt (by ear and with the invaluable help of some honorable anonymous UltimateGuitar users and Youtubers) and began arranging additional instrumentation for them, starting with the ones i had the clearest ideas for. but i only had about 30% of the project finished before i got distracted by other endeavors.

just three months ago in late october 2025 before a show i found myself at dinner with some representatives from my gracious label and the extremely skillful publicist they had somehow convinced and then hired to work on my album 8 Tips. this was the first (maybe last?) instance of such a Dinner™ where i was momentarily allowed to pretend to be a Real Musician; slightly wine drunk and spurred by pre-show nerves and the desire to impress these kind and hardworking industry movers I boasted that I had covered Jessica Pratt’s first album in its entirety “many years ago” and that it was “locked and loaded, totally ready to go.” of course this was a lie but the delusion of being a worthy client was intoxicating. they reacted with surprise and told me i should send them the album ASAP; i bargained that i needed to “touch up and add some flourishes”, which effectively bought me one month to arrange, record, and mix the bulk of the album, which I proceeded to then do in a manic state of self-imposed frenzy. while i’m sure the label initially suspected some misrepresentation or hyperbole on my end, they are only learning the extent of my embarrassing, needlessly stressful farce upon me submitting this very text to them.

this is to say: my ability to hastily fashion together a working album from these songs is a testament to the music’s enduring power, its durability and pliability, its simplicity and sense of inevitability, and also just how much it has meant to me in my life. enjoy!and production-wise. Not just homage but a record in its own right.”

To coincide with the announce Asher has announced a spring tour.