There are a couple of great surprises in this weekend-starting edition of Pick Your Poison. It wasn’t really intended that way, but I’m not going to look a gift horse in the mouth and you shouldn’t either. The thing many of you will want to pay attention to is the new Weezer song available for download. Now that they’re back on an indie label that understands the value of allowing fans to have a song or two preview, we get this one from their upcoming record “Hurley”. Additionally I’ll recommend the Velvet Underground cover from Dashing Suns, a new song from Margot & the Nuclear So and Sos, as well as the tracks by Seeland and Small Black. All great and perfect for weekend-long enjoyment.
Patrick Bateman is a sick man. As the high powered business executive main character in the book and film treatments of “American Psycho”, he is bored by the soulless world around him. It’s this boredom that drives him to the fantasy of living a completely different life, where he can seek bloody revenge on the guy who has a nicer business card, or pick up random prostitutes and sexually and physically abuse them. At a couple different points in the movie, Bateman puts on some music and talks about the Huey Lewis and the News as well as Phil Collins. While the upbeat songs were intended as darkly comical contrast to the heinous acts that he was about to commit, one might suspect that in his private time Bateman might listen to some seriously fucked up shit. If the setting of “American Psycho” was the present instead of the 80s, Bateman would probably find some delight with Matthew Dear’s explicit and predatory new album “Black City”. It’s probably one of the nastiest, grimiest albums released in recent years, but it’s also coincidentally a great dance record that will get you moving even if you feel like you need a shower afterwards.
“Black City” is something of a radical departure for Matthew Dear. He’s been releasing music since about 2003, but until 2007’s “Asa Breed” he worked with a pretty standard electronica sound. On that last album, Dear finally made the decision to add vocals to the mix, and take his rather formless dance compositions in a much more direct, lighthearted pop direction. Maintaining that pop side but completely axing the lighthearted side of it, “Black City” is dark and brooding and best experienced in the most run-down and scariest areas of whatever large urban environment you live closest to. Despite this turn towards the seedy, the move is brilliant mostly thanks to the inventive way he puts these tracks together with rough edges and odd sound combinations. Of course many may not see it that way, and be completely turned off by these unconventional arrangements. This isn’t an easy album to get into, and there aren’t a lot of hooks to work their way into your head either. That Dear doesn’t have the most conventional or best singing voice also doesn’t help matters. The good news on that end is he’s smart enough to add layers and effects to his vocals so they never harm the song.
If you don’t like “Black City”, don’t feel bad. Unlike the balearic, Italo-house leanings of glo-fi/chillwave recently, Matthew Dear deals in more straightforward electro with his own unique twist. The hyper-sexuality and general sliminess of this record can be a sharp turnoff too, especially if you like high energy build-ups and breakdowns. There’s not much on here that moves out of the darkness and into the light, but as things move closer and closer to the inevitable finish there does seem to be a more upbeat tone that takes hold to suggest hope beyond the semen-soaked streets of Whoreville, USA. Sometimes you need to hit bottom before you can start climbing back to the top. In Matthew Dear’s case, diving headfirst into the gutter has been a revealing and exceptionally creative outlet for him, turning out his best record to date. Do yourself a favor and take that same leap with “Black City”. You may not take a shine to it at first, but just try to remember – it’s only after we’ve lost everything that we’re free to do anything. Or something deep like that.
Pretty good set of songs on today’s Pick Your Poison. Most importantly to start, the Fever Ray download below, which is a Peter Gabriel cover, is only available for a few hours. Sorry, but that’s all they’ll allow. So if you go to download it and it doesn’t work, that means it’s been pulled offline. Aside from that though, which comes highly recommended, you’re also going to want to focus on the mp3s from Glasser and The Moaners.
Is it possible to write sunny California-style melodies while living in the extreme urban jungle known as New York City? Californian Bethany Cosentino and her band Best Coast spent some time in New York writing prior to recording their debut album “Crazy For You”, and that seemed to turn out quite well in keeping a surf and sand tone. In a similar fashion, the band Chief features four members who are natives of California, but really didn’t get together and start making music until they were at New York University on the other side of the country. Most of the songs written for the band’s debut album “Modern Rituals” were penned in New York, and part of the album was recorded there as well, before all the guys moved back to Los Angeles last year. The goal might have been to create a record that captures their West Coast energy, but what they’ve done instead is craft something that has the tone and feel of the massive stretch of land in between coasts. It is, in essence, an album for the heartland, with touches of both coasts and everything in the middle.
In terms of overall sound, Chief makes music that sounds immediately familiar. They cite their influences as Neil Young and Tom Petty among others, though they easily transcend the concepts of traditional folk and alt-country. There’s also some good modern-day comparisons in sound to Fleet Foxes and Band of Horses, though it’s easy to get the impression that Chief is aiming for a sound that’s even broader and easier on the ears. There are some big melodies on “Modern Rituals” that rival the open space anthems of bands like U2, Coldplay, Kings of Leon and Oasis, though they never quite reach the astronomical levels required to be considered quite in the same league. These are songs best digested while driving down the expanse of an open road, with nothing but the horizon in front of you. It’s the lively sense of adventure and the unknown that really propels them, along with some reasonably decent hooks. And as brimming with life and sheer worldly expanse as these songs are, they’re also not particularly inventive or surprising. Once you’ve taken in the first couple tracks to wrap your head around the sound, everything else falls right in line with expectation and suddenly you’re surrounded by a series of mid-tempo rock songs that are great but can feel a little plain at times.
It’s worth noting that like a number of great bands coming around these days, Chief has populated their debut album with a wealth of vocal harmonies that turn any otherwise average song into a positively gorgeous one. It’s a smart move, and one that makes “Modern Rituals” just barely worth your time and money. If you have friends that aren’t the most adventurous music listeners, introducing them to Chief should be a pretty safe way to push their tastes just a little bit more in the right direction. And who knows? This band definitely has the potential to blow up huge and play some large venues should they get the support required to take them there. Really though, one can only hope that with this debut album Chief evolves and moves into a more experimental and challenging direction for their sophmore effort. With the potential they’ve shown on “Modern Rituals”, they may just become the toast of indie rock in a few years.
Hope you’re surviving the week okay so far. I’m in the midst of some exciting changes at my job, which will keep me much busier for the foreseeable future. It’s all good though, hopefully the site won’t suffer at all as a result. Today’s Pick Your Poison is another good one. Be sure to check out the new song from The Black, as it’s particularly excellent. I can also recommend tracks from She Sir, Shit Robot, and XBXRX.
It’s been a mere few months since Los Campesinos! released their last album, “Romance Is Boring”, yet despite this they still feel the need to put out something as a stopgap of sorts. These kids are nothing if not productive – after all, they did release their debut full length “Hold On Now, Youngster” to critical acclaim, only to follow that up some months later with the 10-track “non-album” titled “We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed”. This new EP “All’s Well That Ends” is in fact a legitimate, 4-song release from the band, though you’ll be hard-pressed to find it in any other format other than digital. It’s also really something for steadfast and dedicated fans of the band, as there aren’t any “new” songs in this collection. Instead, this EP features 4 songs from their last album “Romance Is Boring” redone in sparse, nearly acoustic arrangements. The tempo gets slowed down and there’s a few different vocal turns as well, allowing for certain more subtle elements of each track to really get pushed forwards.
In case you’re busy sorting through your mp3s and are too clumsy to notice the difference between these EP versions and their originals, Los Campesinos! have helpfully added a few additional words to each song title. Starting out with “Romance Is Boring (Princess Version)”, they turn the punky original into something that’s a little plodding (and quite frankly a little boring…just like romance!), but there are some nice instrumental touches with the acoustic guitars, slide guitar, piano and violin. The most markedly different (and quite frankly exciting) track on the EP is the remake of “A Heat Rash In The Shape Of The Show Me State; or, Letters From Me To Charlotte”. Here it’s retitled “Letters From Me To Charlotte (RSVP)”, and the most noteworthy change is in vocalists, where one of the girls in the band sings. Given that Aleks has now officially left the band, they don’t have a female voice that’s quite as strong as hers. That’s evident from whomever (Kim or Ellen, etc) is singing “Letters to Charlotte (RSVP)” in a duet with Gareth, though to be clear the singing isn’t bad or off-key in the least. Lacking confidence might be the best phrasing to use when describing it. Yet it’s also remarkably effective with the tragedy and general sadness of the lyrics mixed with the acoustic and violin sentiments. “Straight In At 101/It’s Never Enough” has new doubled over male vocals courtesy of Rob backing up Gareth, and it gives the whole pathetic chasing girls lyrical scenario that much more creedence. It does come off as a bit odd though, what with two guys not so much singing but more delivering that spoken word vocal without so much as a harmony. Then again, Los Campesinos! don’t really do harmonies. Where “(All’s Well That Ends) In Medias Res” shines is in the actual execution. The otherwise busy and fast-paced original track that opens the “Romance Is Boring” album may have a ton going for it, but this new quieter version allows for greater focus on the lyrics and other moody nuances.
For an EP that’s tough to find physically and essentially only for Los Campesinos! completists, the band is doing the right thing by making its availability somewhat scarce. Unlike many acoustic or stripped down records that bands tend to release, “All’s Well That Ends” isn’t quite as good or revealing as you might hope it would be. Perhaps the biggest reason for that is the very complicated and unique nature of Los Campesinos’ music in the first place. They have so much going on in each song and there’s plenty of energy that goes into each performance, so when you strip all that away you’re left with are Gareth’s lyrics, which are quite brilliant but no different than they were originally. Sure, this stripped down approach gives you a reason to focus on said lyrics amid what otherwise would have been busy arrangements, but in the world of Los Campesinos! if you listen to each regular album track enough you’ll get around to the deeper meanings and entertaining wordplay eventually. Best to view this EP as a curio, something at the very least worth hearing just to know what the band does when the chips are down and the glockenspiels are put away. Anything beyond that and you’re probably going to struggle to figure out why it was worth the few dollars you spent on it.
If you love the first half of the alphabet, the small surprise in today’s Pick Your Poison is that pretty much every single artist begins with a letter from that first half. Mere coincidence really, but it just so happens there’s also a number of great songs in this collection as well. If you like hip hop, Gary, Indiana native Freddie Gibbs has a new version of an old mixtape for your downloading pleasure. Also there’s a new one from Marnie Stern, who is just plain awesome. The remix of the Apache Beat song also comes pretty highly recommended.
Creativity can be a funny thing. No matter how hard you might try to bring a sense of creative originality to your work, after awhile it becomes easy to fall into the same patterns you started out with. This isn’t always a bad thing, especially if you’ve got a particularly compelling creation in the first place. But should you get bored and worried that you’re not pushing yourself hard enough or far enough in a certain direction, there’s always drastic steps you can take to force your hand. This is what the duo known as Candy Claws did for their second album, “Hidden Lands”. Upon starting work on the album, they realized that they kept using the same guitar chords and song structures that were on their first record. Looking to diversify, they picked up an instrument they had never played before, the keyboard, and began hunting for moments that “sounded right”. The result is a densely layered and obscure record that’s equal parts fascinating and challenging.
At first glance, the layers of synths and obscure time signatures of “Hidden Lands” could bring up memories of Animal Collective circa 2004-05 in what might delicately be referred to as the “Feels” era. There’s perhaps an even stronger connection to Beach House, given the male-female dynamic of the duo and again, the synths. Yet Candy Claws never quite sound like they’ve got a firm grasp on either of those two bands, instead moving in their own unique direction that’s mainly original because Ryan Hover and Kay Bertholf don’t fully know what they’re doing. Yet it still all makes complete sense, particularly in the context of the full record. There’s actually so much going on sonically with layers upon layers, they’ve had to recruit six more people to perform these new songs live. The whole album just sort of drifts by, like a cloud floating past in the sky, with little distinction or moments that stand out. Yet it still sounds beautiful, though it’s not the most upbeat record, like when said cloud covers up the sunlight just as you’re trying to catch a tan. Two of the things that make “Hidden Lands” what it is are so subtle you might not notice them unless you were listening carefully with headphones on. It’s the faint crackle of a vinyl record and the chirping of birds, both of which give the album a natural warmth that significantly aids the mood and tone of the songs.
Lyrically speaking, the words on “Hidden Lands” are pulled from author Richard Ketchum’s novel “The Secret Life of the Forest”, but they’re not exact representations of what’s written in there. See, the band used a fun little online translator known as “Translation Party”, which translates English to Japanese multiple times in a row to show how the phrasing and meaning changes the more times you translate. So basically the lines from the book the band chose to use as lyrics are the fresh, multi-translated versions of the originals. The thing is, not much of it matters because most of the time you can’t hear or understand the lyrics clearly. They’re buried beneath the layers of synths or run through distortion programs, the main purpose being to add to the overall sound in a song rather than try to add depth or meaning. To put it another way, Candy Claws don’t want to tell you what to think, but instead are just asking you to go with the flow. Bringing it back around to the cloud metaphor, nobody can definitively tell you what a cloud “looks like”, because everybody has their own interpretation of the same thing. You might see a porcupine shape, while somebody else sees a princess crown. Whatever holds more significance to you, that’s the correct viewpoint.
Ultimately, “Hidden Lands” is something of a dream album, in the sense that’s hazy and gorgeous to listen to. The keyboards shimmer and the vocals are wispy, covering the entire record in a gloss that’s in no way grounded in reality. One of its biggest benefits (and problems) is the clear lack of standout tracks, from the formless 7 minutes of album opener “In A Deep Time” through the final five minutes of “A Strange Land Discovered”, you drift through as the titles suggest with little grasp of space and time. There’s really nothing too catchy, and the oft-indecipherable vocals help prevent much from sticking with you anyways. For album purists, this should be a delight, while single song obsessives would do best to look elsewhere for compelling tracks. They may not have known what they were doing when they started crafting a keyboard-heavy record without any prior knowledge of the instrument, but the end results are delightfully off-kilter without being too obscure. It leaves you wondering – if they can make something this good from an instrument they knew nothing about, what can they do with instruments they’re already intimately familiar with?
Blah, here’s yet another Monday that signals another start to the work week. Try to avoid getting stuck with “Garfield syndrome” and hating this day each week. Some good songs on this edition of Pick Your Poison. A new one from The Concretes should cure anybody’s early week blues. Francis and the Lights also have a track worth checking out. And hey, there’s a fresh No Age track for you to fully enjoy as well.
Happy Friday the 13th. I hope no black cats crossed your path or anything of that sort. As is typical with a Friday edition of Pick Your Poison, things are a little lighter than usual on the mp3s, but there’s some solid quality today. With the announcement of a new Elliott Smith compilation coming out, there’s an old school mp3 from him available for download. The new Matthew Dear album is getting great reviews so far, and you can hear something from it below. Also of note are good things from S. Carey and Warpaint (in their 2nd mp3 this week!). Check it all out, and enjoy your weekend.
Live Friday this week features a session from Broken Bells. If you’re not in the know, Broken Bells is the duo of James Mercer of The Shins and Danger Mouse. Their self-titled debut album was released this past March to what might be classified as moderately great reviews. There’s an exceptionally smooth 60’s-ish vibe to the whole thing, and while it is somewhat unexpected for the pair, it does work well. Almost as proof positive of that, in addition to playing a bunch of songs from their album, they also do a cover of the 60s hit “Crimson and Clover” by Tommy James and the Shondells. It fits in to the point where you’d think it was a Broken Bells original. So that’s good, the rest of the songs are as well, recorded live in Philadelphia. There’s a little bit of an interview as well, and if you want to hear it the link to stream it is available below.
The midwest is in the midst of a severe heat wave right now, with daily temperatures above 90 degrees but feeling like 100+. If you’re dealing with such extreme weather, I hope you’ve got air conditioning or someplace cool to spend some time. And hey, if you’re near a computer while staying chilled out, Pick Your Poison will help keep things on an even keel. There’s a Beach House remix for your enjoyment. Hot Lava covering Tullycraft is good too. I also caught Warpaint in an aftershow at Lollapalooza and can vouch for their music, and one of their songs is available for download below.
As if Snacks the Cat wasn’t famous enough already for constantly being featured in photos and other things by owner Bethany Cosentino of Best Coast, now Nathan Williams of Wavves has gotten around to featuring a drwaing of the cat on the album cover for his new album “King of the Beach”. Williams and Cosentino are currently dating, and he takes care of Snacks whenever she’s out of town. Funny then that Cosentino said in an interview that Snacks always runs out of the room whenever Williams is playing music, apparently not a fan of the loud noises he’s making with his guitars. As if attempting to incite conflict, the headlines on the web read, “Snack the Cat Hates Wavves”. Of course Cosentino was quick to react via both her Twitter account, and Snacks’ Twitter account, claiming that Snacks likes Wavves very much. It should be a point of pride for Williams, as that’s the most controversial thing that happened to him in recent months. This, after his 2009 was packed with drug-fueled meltdowns, broken limbs, and physical altercations with other bands. Wavves was a magnet for controversy, the Lindsay Lohan of indie rock, if you will. Stability started to come his way thanks in large part to Jay Reatard’s former backing band joining forces with him and turning Wavves into a three-piece. If Wavves’ performance at last year’s Pitchfork Music Festival was a musician struggling in the harsh face of stardom, the new band’s 2010 performance at Lollapalooza was like a phoenix rising from the ashes with a show of strength, power and the purest of sarcasm. That sort of stuff is all over the new album “King of the Beach” too.
The first and most noticeable thing about “King of the Beach” is the quality of the production. Straight from the opening title track, everything sounds markedly clearer compared to the last Wavves album “Wavvves”. That album was fuzzed out lo-fi skateboard rock to the point where the recordings sounded almost purposely dirtied up to go with the spike in popularity the genre was experiencing at the time. So while it may have felt a little disingenuous, the melodies on “Wavvves” were largely addictive, but more interested in catching your ear by slamming it into submission rather than crafting more devious hooks. Now that lo-fi is no longer a “hot” thing, and possibly because Williams actually has more resources to make a proper-sounding album, that’s what he does for “King of the Beach”, keeping the guitars turned up beyond their capacity but making them and his vocals smoother and clearer all around. So now we can hear him complain in typical self-deprecating fashion, “I still hate my music/it’s all the same” on the song “Take on the World”, only this time that’s not entirely true. The new album has more sonic variety than ever, full of jangly guitar pop that actually focuses on verse-chorus-verse structures and tempos that range from speed punk to death metal dirge. So while a song like “Post Acid” can have you bouncing around in a mosh pit, “Mickey Mouse” uses electronic textures and Beach Boys-esque harmonies to occupy the same sonic landscape as Panda Bear. With its lighthearted 8-bit synths and upper-register vocals, “Convertable Balloon” feels like pure indie pop a la Architecture in Helsinki rather than anything you’d otherwise associate with Wavves if it weren’t on the same record with the other stuff. At 5 minutes long, closing track “Baby Say Goodbye” mixes synths, guitars and drums with handclaps, “la la’s” and a backing choir of voices that sound a whole lot like the guys from Passion Pit. This is before the track descends into a world of psychedelic white noise in the last 90 seconds. There’s a certain brilliance in how the record unfolds, and an even stronger testament to the smarts of Nathan Williams for taking Wavves not only to the next level but actually succeeding at doing so.
Where Williams hasn’t evolved on “King of the Beach” is in the lyrics, which are pretty much the same dark, sort of self-destructive tones as the last album. “I hate myself, man/but who’s to blame/I guess I’m just fucked up/or too insane” is what he says on “Take on the World”. And clearly acknowledging how beloved he apparently is, even by his own friends, on “Green Eyes” he says, “My own friends hate my guts/so what, who gives a fuck?”. It’s hard not to feel just a little bad for the guy, but with all the crazy shit that’s happened to him, at least he’s being honest and direct about it. That’s admirable, and in some respects it’s detached enough to where it won’t get you down unless you let it. Plus, the melodies are typically upbeat and catchy enough to render the depressing words ineffective. You could say it’s a shame that for somebody who’s made such big strides forward in every other aspect of his music, that the lyrics don’t quite follow suit. Let’s hope next time he’s able to get as creative with his choice of topics as he has in his musical influences.
With a name like “King of the Beach”, there’s very little reason for you to not take this record out to a sandy location and relax in the sun while playing it. This is ideal for tossing a frisbee around or even skateboarding. It’s also a great surf record, but good luck listening to it while waves are about to slam down on top of you. For a guy that many thought would just be a one-trick pony with nothing left to offer once the popularity of lo-fi died off, Nathan Williams has proven that he’s a far more brilliant musician than anybody ever gave him credit for, and riding on what he’s revealed to us on this new album, he can stay viable and weather whatever storm or controversy that might come his way. Haters be damned, Wavves is here to stay. Now if only Snacks the Cat would get on board too.
Fun stuff in this mid-week edition of Pick Your Poison. There’s a new mp3 from the Wavves record “King of the Beach”, which I’ll be officially reviewing before the end of the week. There’s also yet another new song from How to Dress Well, which if you’re not paying attention to this guy yet, you should be. Oh, and let’s not forget this track from psych-rockers Dungen. Lana Mir’s cover of The Stone Roses is also worth a listen, among others.
You probably know Kathryn Calder best as a utility player in The New Pornographers. If you were unaware she was a member of The New Pornographers, you’d be forgiven considering that A.C. Newman, Dan Bejar and Neko Case are the three principal singers and songwriters for the band. As has happened often in the past, Neko Case will often take some time away from the band in order to work on solo material and tour around that. In the situations where Case takes a break, it’s Kathryn Calder that steps into her place when female vocal parts are required. Otherwise, you can find her behind the keyboards doing what she can to be a team player. Prior to that, Calder also was a key member of Canadian indie pop band Immaculate Machine. She’s ambitious beyond the bands she’s been a part of though, and during a particularly tough time in her life, she got together with producer Colin Stewart to record her debut solo album “Are You My Mother?” which is out this week.
The recording process for “Are You My Mother?” started in 2007 when Calder returned home to Victoria, BC Canada during a bit of a break from touring with The New Pornographers. Her mother was terminally ill with ALS, and she wanted to have all the comforts of home and be able to help out, so she created a makeshift recording studio with Colin in her living room. A big reason why she wanted to make the record was because her mom was constantly telling her she should, and she had plenty of demos just sitting around collecting dust. The goal was to have the album completed so her mom could hear it before she died, and though she was around for the recording process, everything was finally finished before she passed away in June of 2009. The title “Are You My Mother?” is less a reference to her own mom, but a children’s book by the same name that she (Kathryn) happens to love. And while some of the sadder songs on the album might also seem autobiographical or at least written in response to such an emotional time in her life, Calder has been careful to state that’s not really the case.
What “Are You My Mother?” generally sounds like is about what you’d expect from a talented female singer-songwriter these days. Calder plays virtually every instrument on the album, and a fair number of the songs are in the upbeat and poppy range, which is thte sort of kick in the pants this record needed. Piano and acoustic guitar seem to be her main instruments of choice, and there are splashes of tambourine and other rhythmic devices in play as well. Much of the percussion on the album was created with found objects, which helps to explain why one song sounds like light tapping on a file cabinet and another abuses a tissue box. Front and center though is Calder’s voice, which is strong and emotionally resonant, though not quite on a powerhouse-type level that you’d get from her New Pornographers bandmate Neko Case, who coincidentally also contributes backing vocals to a couple songs.
When she’s on the money, Kathryn Calder shines above many other women making similar-sounding music. Opening track “Slip Away” is beautifully measured out in doses of quieter and louder moments when guitars come in and bring a lush vibe to the chorus. “Castor and Pollux” is perhaps the most exciting song on the album, and it features live drums and the soaring electric guitar chorus with the line “Blown wide open” is remarkably catchy. Piano and bass permeate “Arrow” nicely, and there are some woodwinds that come in after the first verse that create added depth to a gorgeous melody. The chipper “If You Only Knew” does well for itself thanks to handclaps and shouted backing vocals that you really can’t help but smile at. “A Day Long Past It’s Prime” has a fuzzy electric guitar and a toe-tapping pace that’s fun but not the most memorable song on the record. That’s actually the album’s biggest problem – that there aren’t enough hooks to keep the songs banging around in your head until you listen to them again. The quiet acoustic or piano ballads have their place over about half the record, but the more vibrant and quickly paced songs need that extra push to stay with you.
Kathryn Calder ultimately sounds her best in two situations: the emotionally stripped and sparse ballad, and the busier, loud pop song. “Are You My Mother?” features a couple of each, and they hold your attention hostage for their duration and even a little bit beyond that. The other stuff just feels transitional. Of course transition is a big theme this album brings out, primarily the issue of putting away childish things and moving towards becoming a mature adult. We still have those fond memories of childhood with our parents and those books we liked so much we’d ask to have them read to us over and over again, but that’s exactly what they need to remain – fond memories. We can’t go back there, and instead of letting that weigh on us we need to move on. Depressing as it may seem, the love of our friends and family continue to tie us with our youth no matter how old we get. Of course that’s probably reading too much into it, so let’s just settle on the idea that Kathryn Calder’s solo debut is a heartfelt delight on multiple emotional scales, and it serves as proof she’s a strong talent worth watching in the years to come.
