Jayli Wolf

Daughter of the Haze - Jayli Wolf: Album Review

Vevna Forrow

Jayli Wolf is a Canadian poet, singer-songwriter, and lyrical black-belt. She is also part of the electronic/alt-pop duo Once A Tree with Hayden John (Kelcey) Wolf, her partner. Her album, Daughter of the Haze, from November 21st, 2025, is filled with impeccable vocals that get to your heart, as in several of her past releases. I love seeing artists create work around their heritage, ancestry, true memories, or pieces to unleash messages. “Gold,” ‘Lay Me Down,” and “Midnight Garden” are my faves on the album. The album is a 360-degree poetic masterpiece; it has 11 songs, and many of them are comprised of natural elements, spoken word, and real-world hurdles tied to life, reflecting on childhood and adulthood, looking back at lineage, breaking free from cults, moving through the claws of grief, and most importantly, the path to letting love in again. Also, the music video for “Gold” plugged in above is really cool, too. Be sure to check it out, especially if you love typewriter vibes.

The cover art of Daughter of the Haze itself is amazing too—it has a young girl padlocked behind the side ribs of an exposed wolf, along with a grass of bones and mushrooms. She is one of my favorite modern and creative Indigenous artists on the planet. I personally have done a lot of digital collage wolf designs, myself, and have some Native American roots from my mom’s side of the family, but am predominantly Punjabi and African American. While it’s not part of this album being discussed here, probably, my all-time favorite song of Jayli Wolf’s is “Lead Me,” below, which has a must-watch music video, and “Blood Orange” is another recommendation.

For me, a lot of the songs in the Daugher of the Haze have much more gentle tones to them, aside from “Lay Me Down.” I love how Jayli Wolf’s work reels in the importance of highlighting nature at times, and doesn’t shy away from baring fangs and the truth; it showcases the past, present, and future—takes everything out of one’s skeleton closet. Many of Jayli Wolf’s songs are honestly raw and powerful. I believe she recently started another separate vlog-based YouTube channel as well. There are a number of her short films and spoken word reels, which you can discover on social media, that are quite captivating too.

The sound of birds, outdoor, field recordings create a mystic atmosphere for your ears, draw you into the songs much further at the start, and add depth to it, like what we hear in “Iron Cage,” I believe Hayden also had worked with Jayli on the lyrics—if I’m wrong, apologies in advance.

The aspect of a young woman who “turned wolf,” and still is “taking flight,” or as the song stresses, that some experiences we go through shake up our path, particularly being exposed to or forced into cults tied to religion, can be detrimental to ones health and growth at an early age, where in fact we should be allowed to choose freely, what we believe in, what to eat, etc.

To me, the spoken word songs were no doubt beautifully produced; however, a tad less riveting, as a song like “Lay Me Down” at 0:36 + 1:39 + 2:43 and “Gold” had far more impact on me with their strong underlying flowing rhythms in the composition. Although I truly love spoken word and poetic tracks, there were times I wanted to hear a bit more sung lyrics across the album as a whole, a bit less instrumental and spoken word-focused work, which led me to not give it a complete 5 out of 5. If you’re someone who adores spoken word and storytelling as I do or even folk music, then you’ll thoroughly enjoy this entire album. On the other hand, if you’re not into that, of course, your rating would be perhaps below a 4 for the Daugher of Haze album.

Their voices are not the same as Jayli’s by any means, and I don’t like to say artists sound like others, but, of course, I would say I am absolutely a fan of S.MICHAUD and Julia Wolf’s music, which also has had wolf-like focal notes with a number of their releases, but to me, Jayli zeroes in greatly, embedding nature, leveraging the wilderness and heritage into her work. which is really lovely to see in music production.

When we go through rather dark events in life, it is absolutely vital to remember what real love is, and we must all channel our inner wolf to survive and grow—living with our hearts uncaged. It is important to reflect on our journey in life from start to finish and to release the heavier cycling memories we have carried connected to family, love, loss, and especially those within our childhood, which the album makes you do so upon hearing it.

Memorable Lyrics from “Lay Me Down:”

Now, a valley of fog, all my past is gone

Yet roots hold blood down six feet deep

I strike a match but it burns in reverse

A flame that forgets what it means to keep

RATING: 4.3 OUT OF 5

Remember to add songs from Daughter of the Haze to your playlist(s) and take a look at Jayli Wold's music out on these channels or your preferred streaming platform, find them @jayliwolf on Instagram and elsewhere.