Change Is a Slow Moving Beast welcomes us into the rich inner world of Tāmaki Makaurau singer-songwriter Jessica Bailey, aka Fables. Image by image, the music documents the moments that forced her to reevaluate her life, and the hard-won personal growth that followed. Over twelve moody, vividly realised chambers of song, she navigates indecision, vulnerability, and self-reflection, before realising that the pursuit of artistic clarity is the journey and the destination.
 
There’s a popular misconception out there that the human body completely replaces its cells every seven years. While it isn’t strictly true, the idea serves as an apt metaphor for the distance between Bailey’s first EP, 2018’s Portraits and Change Is a Slow-Moving Beast. From the eerie opening atmosphere of her paean to absolution, ‘Forgiving’, Bailey’s debut album emerges as a patiently paced exploration of how life inevitably transforms us.
 
Somewhere between diary entries, mood montages, and echoes of memory, songs like ‘Cacophony’, ‘Notebook’ and past singles ‘Sundown’ and ‘Eyes Closed’ delve into her relationships with grieving, yearning, and pining. These universal themes anchor the emotional landscape of the record. It’s been a long, slow rise, but for anyone who has ever made the mistake of not trusting their gut instincts, Bailey’s album offers catharsis, acceptance and release. By the time the album concludes as ‘Every time I find the Meaning of Life’ rings out, she’s come to terms with the relationship between the goal posts and mirages. The good, the bad, the ugly, none of it lasts forever, so best we live through all of it the best we can.
 
Recorded with a resplendent cast of session musicians—bassist Cass Basil (Tiny Ruins, King Sweeties), multi-instrumentalist Dave Kahn (Marlon Williams, Reb Fountain), and drummer Arahi (Te Tokotoru, Pony Baby)—Change Is a Slow-Moving Beast dresses Bailey’s confessional songwriting in the textures of alt-country, Americana, contemporary folk and sleek, minimal synth-pop. Mixed by Australian audio engineer and musician Dan Luscombe (of The Drones) and produced by Khan, the album is rendered in a vivid, cinematic style that complements the music’s unguarded emotional intensity.