The Tennessee indie artist’s third LP is an impassioned, raw emotion narrative of life falling apart in lockdown, her at times fractured voice and powerful instrumentation capturing a self-excoriating autobiography, stormy chaotic emotions, observations and experiences. “‘There’s no glory in love, only the gore of our hearts’ are the words handwritten above and below her portrait on the album cover. While many artists have pared down their sound, Baker seems to have expanded hers, with away from the acoustic to big electric guitar sounds and a variety of pedals, bass, drums, banjo and more like to be all from her own hand. Her voice is far from unique - that throatiness is a bit cliched and overblown at times, and there do seem some deliberate mainstream indie sounds that remind you of so many 90s or early 00s bands, but you can’t fault how cutting and caustic she can be in her lyrics. Now 25, Baker seems to have reached greater maturity in this third release, and also on the back of working with indie supergroup Boygenius with Phoebe Bridgers and Lucy Dacus, her songwriter reflects this in its increased grandeur alongside the hard truths. “Knocked out on a weekend/Would you hit me this hard if I were a boy?” on the opener Hardline. And expansive? How about this on Heatwave? “I was on a long spiral down …. but before I make it to the ground/I’ll wrap Orion’s belt around my neck and kick the chair out.” Other strong songs include Bloodshot, Ringside and the piano-based Song In E. Released on Matador Records.
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