Tuesday, March 06, 2012

Waxahatchee - American Weekend


Waxahatchee is the solo project for Katie Crutchfield.  Though she has been in a couple other bands (P.S. Eliot and Bad Banana), I have not heard either of them.  This album was featured on Up and In: The Baseball Prospectus Podcast (by the way, if you're a fan of baseball - specifically the prospect side of things - you need to listen to this podcast), and I immediately fell in love with it.

It's basically a lo-fi folk record.  But that oversimplifies it.  It's definitely a sparse album, with only a guitar and Katie's voice in each song (the lone exception being "Noccalula", where she trades in her guitar for a piano).

So the songs are sparse, but they also feel full.  Her voice is gorgeous, and it really fills the songs out.  She makes each song unique and interesting.  I have listened to this album a ton of times, and I have never been bored.  The way she is able to wrap her voice around each song keeps me coming back to the album over and over again.  And it only improves with each listen.

The lo-fi production was pretty distracting at first.  There are moments where it's rougher than others.  Some of the songs sound like old Alan Lomax field recordings.  But, once I started falling in love with the songs, I didn't notice the production so much.  In fact, it kind of added to the songs.  There's something timeless about these recordings.  I wouldn't have been the least bit surprised to find that this was a recently unearthed recording from 1920.

In case you couldn't tell, I love this album.  It's bare and raw and beautiful.  I can't get enough of it.

Rating: 5/5
Favorite song: "Bathtub"



If you want to buy this album (which I highly recommend that you do), go here.  I bought the vinyl for $10, which is a tremendous price.