Fran Credit: courtesy the artist

In a 2017 interview with Sixty Inches From Center contributor (and Reader staffer) S. Nicole Lane, Fran front woman Maria Jacobson talked about her nightly routine of playing her acoustic guitar just before she goes to bed. “A lot of times I still will use it kind of in response to things that happen in my life,” she said. “If I’m overwhelmed with anxiety or trying to unwrap some emotion, I’ll kind of take to the guitar. Which sounds like, I dunno, melodramatic or something, but it really helps. It’s very therapeutic.” Perhaps Jacobson’s relationship with her guitar is the inspiration behind the balm-like quality of Fran’s debut EP, 2017’s More Enough (Lake Paradise). The band, which is rounded out by guitarist Mike Altergott, drummer Raul Cotaquispe, and bassist-keyboardist Atticus Lazenby, plays easygoing indie rock with patience and warmth, creating a mood that prevails even through the EP’s roughest and loudest passages, such as the sped-up finale to “Parking Lot.” Jacobson’s taut, serene singing acts as a guiding light, and while her voice never flies free of the music’s gravitational tug—I’d follow it through any unusual turn if it ever did.   v

Twitter: @imLeor