Waxahatchee
Ivy Tripp
Merge Records

I was quite taken by Waxahatchee's "Air" a couple of months ago. "Air" was the first taster from Waxahatchee's third album, Ivy Tripp. Yes! That's the spirit! Waxahatchee!

Waxahatchee is 26-year-old singer-songwriter Katie Crutchfield's solo project. In one year she spat out two albums, 2012's American Weekend and 2013's Cerulean Salt (both on Don Giovanni Records). In-between those records she relocated from her native Birmingham, Alabama to the cool New York (even though if it is Long Island, not Brooklyn). Last year saw Angel Olsen's breakthrough with her album Burn Your Fire for No Witness. This year might bring Waxahatchee/Katie Crutchfield to the same position. Throughout her songs I sense the heritage of tough women in rock as Kirsten Hirsch, Tanya Donelly, PJ Harvey, Juliana Hatfield, Liz Phair, and Chan 'Cat Power' Marshall. Plus, of course, Angel Olsen. She's been tagged 'America's new anti-folk hero' (by NME) and she writes and performs songs that is hard to label. Her sound is raw, real, honest and naked. Her songs get to you, either if their of the balladry kind ("Half Moon", "Blue", or "Stale by Noon"), or being slightly more rocking ("Under A Rock", "The Dirt", or "Poison"). Crutchfield's been writing songs for more than ten years, since her early teens, and Ivy Tripp is her private, personal stroll throughout her life so far. '...to represent both where she came from and where she's going,' according to label Merge. The opening "Breathless" makes you almost gasp for air. One of the coolest tracks is "La Loose", which is comfortably loose. "Grey Hair" is another highlight. Yes, it is a one breath-taking album. Just check out the slow burning "Bonfire" which closes the album.

'The title Ivy Tripp is really just a term I made up for directionless-ness, specifically of the 20-something, 30-something, 40-something of today, lacking regard for the complaisant life path of our parents and grandparents. I have thought of it like this: [Waxahatchee's last album] Cerulean Salt is a solid and Ivy Tripp is a gas.'

The Waxahatchee touring band count Katie's sister Allison Crutchfield (the sisters had the pop punk band P.S. Eliot going some years ago), Jacob (who? Katie's cat?), Keith Spencer (from the band Swearin', as well as having a project called Great Thunder going on with Katie), Katherine Simonetti (who also contributed to the P.S. Eliot band), Ashley Arnwine (from projects Mass Movement Of The Moth, Ingrid and Pinkwash). Go see them live, in the US or when they visit Europe this May/June. Highly recommended.

Copyright © 2015 Håvard Oppøyen