Jack River

Between her bright vocal presence and sharp, emotive lyrics, Australian indie artist Jack River is equally comfortable across varied stylistic backdrops. Born Holly Rankin in 1991 in Forster, NSW, River adopted the empowering, fantasy-like moniker she made up as a child. After embracing knotty guitar twang and widescreen choruses on 2016 debut EP Highway Songs #2, she pivoted into the soaring dream-pop of 2017’s “Fool’s Good”, the platinum-selling precursor to her 2019 album Sugar Mountain. Inspired by the Neil Young ballad, and featuring piano from her brother Reuben, the album dealt with their sister’s accidental death in 2006. That profound statement was followed by club-ready EDM in the 2019 Peking Duk collab “Sugar”, before 2020’s Stranger Heart returned indie-rock guitars to the fore. When River crafted a sunny throwback to mid-’90s radio pop with 2022’s “Real Life”, it confirmed how suited her savvy songwriting is to any number of contexts.