When you reflect on Jem’s career to date - her mononym is short for Jemma Griffiths - it’s hard not to feel that she represents one of the great missed crossover opportunities of recent times in the UK. After leaving her work in the promotion side of the industry behind in 2000 to pursue a solo career of her own, she quickly began working with the high-profile likes of Guy Sigsworth, who’s worked with Madonna, Bjork and Imogen Heap, and hip hop producer Ge-Ology. Later, she’d be signed to RCA Records subsidiary ATO Records, and her first album, 2004’s Finally Woken, looked set to launch her into the stratosphere. Instead, though, despite it meeting with a decent critical and commercial response and spawning super singles like ‘Wish I’ and ‘Just a Ride’, something about Jem’s approach didn’t quite seem to chime with the public consciousness, because follow-up Down to Earth flopped, reaching only number sixty-four on the UK charts. Perhaps her blend of trip hop and electronica was considered a little dated - it’s a very nineties sound - but either way, her well-reviewed live shows, which fleshed out her tracks with a full live band and shadowy stage set up, weren’t enough to cement her place in the pop mainstream.
A Perfect Circle
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