P.S. Eliot

• Introverted Romance in Our Troubled Minds [Salinas, 2009] B+
• Sadie [Salinas, 2011] A-

Consumer Guide Reviews:

Introverted Romance in Our Troubled Minds [Salinas, 2009]
Their 2009 debut LP is palpably younger--slightly quicker and considerably more high-flown, the vocals longer on forced scansion and childish drawl. The tune prospecting is almost as astute, however, and topped off lyrically by the 20-is-forever fight song "Tennessee" ("Baby let's push our limits") and the tell-me-your-feelings critique "Like Who You Are" ("We always discontinue what we don't misconstrue"). What will become of them, you can't help wondering, already knowing that in not too long they'll discontinue. B+

Sadie [Salinas, 2011]
With one slow and excellent exception and a few deviations, all 13 punky songs on the second album by the first (recorded) band built around Alabama's twin Crutchfield sisters are defined by a crude, catchy, commonplace guitar riff and proceed over drumming that keeps its figuration simple and repetitive when it doesn't bang outright. Simultaneously hesitant and forthright, singer Katie Crutchfield sounds above all brave as she pronounces and occasionally mispronounces her lyrics, which dwell on botched communication both verbal and emotional. Her language is usually plain ("Your eyes go crossed like mine/You'll regret that when you're older") but sometimes gawkily high-flown ("Your endeared negligence," "The cold and correlated closely flock"). On my favorite track, "Pink Sheets," it combines the two: "Rose quartz, star charts/We heal our broken hearts/With warped reality/And practical psychology." But always there is the sound of becoming that the young treasure for one reason and the ex-young value for quite another. A-