There's something
to be said for the direct approach.
That's the only
way Katie Crutchfield – vocalist and creative force behind Waxahatchee – knows
how to approach her music. It shines through in her lyrics – funny, witty, and
sad, all at the same time – and her music, which always sounds like it was
banged out by actual musicians who know each other. These days, you rarely get
to hear albums that sound as clear and
unproduced as the work Crutchfield does – it's a skill that not many posses.
The glorious Ivy Tripp, Crutchfield's third as
Waxahatchee, takes everything that people have been digging about her music
since her 2012 debut (the ferociously personal lyrics and stunningly diverse
sonic sensibilities), and boils it all down to its purest form. It's a pop
album the same way Pet Sounds is – an
album entirely filtered through one wildly creative world view. Ivy Tripp embraces contradictions and manages
to be both welcoming and standoffish, of its time and ahead of it, criminally
catchy and utterly dense the surface.
If there's a
theme to the album, it's the passage of time and how that changes the way we perceive
events, particularly surrounding relationships. Take the way Crutchfield
heartbreakingly looks back at a summer romance on "Summer of Love:"
"I didn't think, now I'm here/Treading water without you," she sings
over a simple acoustic guitar riff and the wind breezing through the trees. It
sounds as if she's processing the end of the relationship on her porch not long
after it happened, working her way back through her shared memories. She
attempts to connect with people while mourning the relationship, then slips
into reveries of better times while those same people are talking, and all she
really wants to do is look at her photo of the pair together. When she sings,
"The summer of love is a photo of us," over and over during the
chorus, it's as devastating as it is lovely.
Elsewhere on the
album, she uses a simple organ line and echoing vocals on "Stale by
Noon" to confront the way memories are almost always more positive than
the actual event, and on "La Loose" she crafts the poppiest song on
the album about a lover that can't seem to let go of the past. "I
selfishly want you here to stick to," she pleads in a voice so sweet that
it seems impossible anyone would say no.
The best two
songs on the album – and contender for best emotional one-two punch of the year
– are "Blue" and "Air," and both serve as the thesis
statements for Crutchfield's approach on Ivy
Tripp. "Blue" comes first, and features just an electric guitar
and cascading vocals that simulate the very running water Crutchfield is
singing about. It's just a few seconds longer than two minutes, yet manages to
be utterly, utterly enchanting. It's like a Fleet Foxes song with just one
person.
"Air"
follows with perhaps the best vocal work on the album, showing off Crutchfield's
entire range – from cooing "oohs" in the background to a leap in tone
and pitch during the chorus that can send chills down your spine. The lyrics
about someone who is "patiently giving me everything that I will never
need," manages to be both heartbreaking and incriminatory without naming
the guilty party. Who is at fault here? The person who is giving her the wrong
things or Crutchfield herself for not wanting them? She doesn't say, and that
ambiguity is another constant on Ivy
Tripp.
I really can't
say enough about the instrumentation on the album, which runs the gamut from my
bloody valentine-style feedback and reverb on "The Dirt," to Carole
King piano stylings on "Half Moon." It's the perfect marriage of
music and lyrics, and throughout Crutchfield keeps ahold of her punk
sensibilities, managing to deliver absolutely killer tracks in three minutes or
less.
Not for one
moment on Ivy Tripp does Crutchfield
let go of her honesty – not only where it concerns others, but also about
herself. She can be downright brutal when she wants to, but that's part of her
creative process, and she comes out of it absolutely gleaming. On "Less
Than" she blasts someone with the line," You're less than me, I am
nothing." As Ivy Tripp proves,
Crutchfield has it wrong – she is everything.
Ivy Tripp is
out on Merge.
No comments:
Post a Comment