CD of The Week

If a tree falls in the woods, and no one is around, does it make a sound? If a band records a one-off album with no plans beyond, does it matter? Physics dictate that yes, the tree still makes a sound, so it makes further sense that the Crutchfield twins, Katie and Allison, and their new project Snocaps, created a decadent treat well worth your time. Supported by Waxahatchee (Katie’s band) collaborators MJ Lenderman (guitars/bass/drums) and Brad Cook (various instruments/producer/engineer), the four-piece made a revolutionary self-titled record, considering that the surprise album wasn’t made to fulfill a contract obligation or to announce an artist’s comeback. Waxahatchee is doing just fine, increasing in popularity and praise with each album, and Allison has been happily working as an A&R rep with Anti- (Snocaps’ record label). So why pack it in before even basking in the record’s reception? Katie wrote in a recent Substack post that the sisters were remembering their youthful days growing up together back in Birmingham, AL and they ”longed for that type of experience again, to make something with no ambitions and no plan, purely for our own enjoyment, for the experience of making something we ourselves wanted to hear.”

For a quick refresher, the sisters have been in bands or worked together since they were teens. In the press release, Katie, now 36, said, “Allison and I have been, in some way, shape or form, doing this together for over 20 years.” Bonded as The Ackerlys while still in high school, then P.S. Eliot, which brought them national attention, their split in 2011 took them on different journeys, as Waxahatchee for Katie, and Swearin’ plus a pair of underappreciated solo records for Alllison. They have popped up here and there in each other’s projects and toured briefly as a reunited P.S. Eliot in 2016. Snocaps continues the family collaboration, with seven songs written by Allison and six by Katie. To top it off, their niece Lola supplies vocals for the closing track “Coast II.”

Fans of the twins’ individual sounds should find their styles represented without much surprise. Katie’s twangier, melancholy tracks rely on her reliably rustic turn of phrase, highlighted on the confident, itemized “Wasteland” the slow swaggering “Doom” and the road-worn jangle of “Angel Wings.” Her song “Hide” recalls the acoustic version of “La Loose” from Waxahatchee’s Ivy Tripp with a hushed, harmonized muttering for the chorus. Allison’s indie-rock pedigree bleeds through on the shiny happy head-bopping “Avalanche,” the shuffle-drum Americana of “Over Our Heads,” and the jangly power pop “Brand New City.” “Heathcliff,” perhaps the best track on the album, features crystal-clear lyrics over an energetic bass line that drips with hooks as the song builds with repetition.   

Tying the album together are the sisters’ harmonies for each track. No matter who penned the song, they share duty supporting each other with delicately layered vocals, proving that no matter who takes lead, they are more powerful as a pair. Allison's “Coast” and Katie’s “Cherry Hard Candy” blend their styles together more than the rest of the tracks, feeling like they were produced as tighter collaborations. “Coast” slowly plods along grungy lines and the reflective “Cherry Hard Candy” rides a wave of rollicking strums and gleeful vocals.

Snocaps evolved from concept to tape over a four-month period early this year, a week of which was all it took to record it at Cook’s home studio. After a run of December shows coming up in Chicago, L.A., and New York, the band says that the project will be “put on ice for the foreseeable future.” However, they will also be a part of Wilco’s Sky Blue Sky festival in Mexico this January. For now, this record stands as the rejuvenation that the Crutchfields needed to fan their flickering musical passion, igniting it back into a flame. We can only assume that even better things are to come for the pair of highly praised indie darlings.

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