Album Review: Waxahatchee – Ivy Tripp

Waxahatchee – Ivy Tripp

IVYTripp

Reiview By: KURE Music Committee
Rating: 7.5/10

Waxahatchee is an alternative singer/songwriter, but it’s hard to classify it as exactly that.  Waxahatchee is the solo work of Katie Crutchfield, who is also known for her work in PS Eliot, a project she worked on with her sister.  Katie grew up in Alabama along the Waxahatchee Creek. The influences and sound of the area are present (raw back woods country and southern rock) but the album is also full of ambiance and distortion that you could only find on a punk record, harmonies and story-telling like that of a folk album.  The influences vary widely on the album and makes for a really interesting and fun listen.

The album begins with the droning guitar lines of ‘Breathless’, where she introduces herself a midst a dark, sludgy mix of guitars and organ. It’s a sad, depressing track and it draws you into the intimacy of the album and her personal life. The raw and personal feeling that this album presents is the most interesting part, it feels like you’re listening as she describes her life to you. Upbeat lo-fi tracks like The Dirt, which is surrounded by shiny, drowsy tunes that are quite reminiscent of a creek slowly making its way downstream, help to propel the album forward right when things begin to move too slowly. The pattern is repeated throughout the album, a slow intimate song followed by a more upbeat track.

This is the most interesting album from Waxahatchee, it sees her exploring her sound more and experimenting while still writing beautiful, personal tracks. The album is more distorted, sadder and darker than what we saw from this project on Cerulean Salt, but it makes the album all the more interesting. The focus on pacing was lovely, never sitting too long on a sad, slow track and quickly moving on to a more optimistic and bright track.

RIYL: Speedy Ortiz, Hop Along, Courtney Barnett
FCC: 12
Favorite Tracks: 8, 10, 6, 4,

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