Waxahatchee - Ivy Tripp

Waxahatchee
Ivy Tripp
2015
Waxahatchee - Ivy Tripp

The opener from Waxahachee's third album Ivy Tripp lets a distorted guitar rumble throughout creating a brooding sound that almost feels ominous. That is not the point and the later tracks don't come close to following suit but it is an interesting way to take the Lo-Fi and turn it into a room filling sound. The rest of Ivy Tripp is soaked in Indie rock complete with ripping guitars and splashy drums. The album is at it's best when the full band is allowed to let loose and get into a groove and at it's worst when things slow down and become to twee for it's own good. The writing however is absolutely stellar. Lines like: "The colors allure me but I can’t make out/ A face in the picture of palm trees/ The summer of love is a photo of us." just punctuate Her ability to craft lyrics that can all at once be highly poetic as well as highly true. The album is also quite light able to sort of ebb and flow over the space that it creates never really making a hard punctuation into any one moment or the next.

There are times on the record like on "Blue" when a line, though beautiful, will be repeated over and over almost to annoyance. The next track "Air" with it's oooohs brings it back around to something really quite enjoyable. One of the best parts of Ivy Tripp is Katie Crutchfield's voice. It is quite pretty yet still maintains that punk rock grit that so many people look for but never really attain. The entire record feels so organic that you never get a sense that anyone is pushing anything to hard. They are completely effortless in the music that they make and not for a lack of skill but more for their own ability. The fact that Crutchfield is only 26 and this is oly one of Her many releases means that there is much more good music on the horizon from both Waxahatchee and whatever other band she decides to create. Ivy Tripp is a really nice little album and one you should not miss this year.

8 out of 10