Allison Weiss – New Love
Reviewed by: Nicholas Bramanti
Score: 7.5/10
Allison Weiss is a singer-songwriter who’s made a living on exposing all of the dark corners of her life and relationships. She writes songs about her love life and bares her heart on every track. It’s heart-breaking and sad, but as Allison says on the first track “I like the hurt cause I like the sound.” Every track feels intimate and familiar, like you’re hearing from a close friend tell you their life story.
Allison has been working her way up through the indie/alternative scene, releasing her first album through crowd-funding and then her next albums came out on major alternative/emo labels. Her last record, the fantastic Say What You Mean, came out on No Sleep Records [Daisyhead, Koji, Run Forever], and the new record was released on SideOneDummy [Andrew Jackson Jihad, Dresses, Meat Wave]. The album is gorgeously produced, with help coming from Forrest Kline of Hellogoodbye and Bradley Hale of Now, Now. Weiss’ voice shines strongly, and is the central focus, with very little flashy guitar or drum work.
The album is made up of two types of songs: slow, dreamy ballads and upbeat, poppy power anthems. At times the song fades from one into the other and back again. We’ve been hearing this same style on all of her releases but for the most part she sticks to her known formula and does it well. You could ask for more experimentation, but it’s not always necessary for an album to go places they haven’t been before. She made a sad, introspective album that softly moves from angry to sad to joyful to an ignorant bliss covering the range of human emotions in a very real and very human way.
Fave Tracks: 5, 9, 2, 1
FCC: Clean
RIYL: The Front Bottoms, Tegan and Sara, Jenny Owen Youngs
