"Although she began collecting awards for her poetry as a teen, including being named National Youth Poet Laureate in 2019, Chicagoland's Kara Jackson is far from a writer who dabbles in music. She started piano lessons as early as age five, has referred to singing as her first love, and released her debut singer/songwriter EP within weeks of the laureate designation. Even though the EP, a spare acoustic-guitar outing, garnered positive attention for its blunt observations and turns of phrase as well as Jackson's husky, authoritative voice, it may have done little to prepare the music world for the stark theatricality and poignancy of her first album".