Dora Jar Makes the Complex Seem Effortless in Riveting Single “Ragdoll”
Photo: Haley Appel
The primary reason bedroom pop continues to demand total immersion this decade is precisely because of artists like Dora Jar and singles like her latest, “Ragdoll.” The new song, a parade of individually gorgeous sonic elements compounding and intersecting, is simultaneously tranquil and feverishly fierce, as the best bedroom pop should be.
It’s all in the careful layering of each sound—an acoustic guitar riff, Jar’s trance-inducing vocals, a spitfire beat, and crackling synthetics, all melting into one inside a pristine cauldron of production. Because each ingredient is immediately identifiable, the song retains its genre roots, paying homage to a DIY craft that Jar knows well, and it shows.
Making the complex seem effortless is what artists like Jar have built their careers on. In parallel with her raw vocal talent, her ability to orchestrate a single that, despite high-gloss production, still feels crafted in true artisan fashion is what makes her a linchpin of pop and all its alternative sparklings.
All this fanfare precedes the release of her debut album, No Way To Relax When You Are On Fire, out September 13 via Island Records. The compilation of tracks, exploring existential themes, is already anticipated to have an edge sharpened by her previous single “Timelapse” and the rave reviews that accompanied it.
“Hold me like I’m sunburnt, raging fever flame / I’m gonna lose control / Dirty rascal, razor blade,” Jar sings in “Ragdoll.” These vivid and cutting lyrical components are fitting for a song that quickly raises the stakes with its swelling sounds and culminates in a euphoric sonic tempest that, as it cruises away to supple vocalizations, scorches into memory.
Watch the "Ragdoll" visualizer below:
