A Little Touch of Schleicher in the Night

NYの実力派インディーバンドWILDER MAKERのキーボーディスト / ヴォーカリスト、KATIE VON SCHLEICHERがニューアルバムをリリース!
自身とSAM GRIFFIN OWENS (SAM EVIAN)の共同プロデュースによる作品で、ARTHUR RUSSELLやKIRSTY MACCOLLからインスピレーションを得たソングライター・アルバムとなっています。

After becoming known for songs with dark, melancholy points of view that often played against their catchy, ear-pleasing accompaniment, and then experiencing the isolation and cessation of touring that defined the first year-plus of the COVID-19 pandemic, Katie von Schleicher made a conscious decision to find a way to allow a little humor into her songwriting. The resulting tracks were recorded with contributions from friends including one of her pandemic poker buddies, Sam Griffin Owens (aka Sam Evian), who co-produced the album with von Schleicher. A Little Touch of Schleicher in the Night finds the songwriter incorporating strings and horns into easygoing, intimate indie rock for a set of often playfully candid songs. Head-bobbing opener "Montagnard People" fits this description to a T, with its whispery vocals, low-key rock quintet, six-piece string section, and baritone and alto saxophones. The songs lyrics include the rhetorical, "Am I just my own clown? Or would anyone like some." Most of the songs here continue in that vein, although a shadowy psychedelic bent marks tracks like "Cranked" and the livelier "Overjoyed," which marries bouncy rhythms and a smiling, horn-injected chorus to lyrics about driving to a cat scan with a headache. Nevertheless, she sings, "Im overjoyed and everyones my friend/It makes it easier to get off on my love." That song is one of the few to feature a full-voiced von Schleicher, along with the snarling "Elixir" ("Im done with oversharing/Now Im cool"), as most of the album falls in the wispier realm. That includes the earnest and evocative "Texas," which serves as a highlight for its dramatic arrangement of swelling strings, skeletal piano, yearning vocals, and reverb-bolstered atmosphere. Ultimately, however, von Schleichers personality overpowers any changes of approach, with A Little Touch of Schleicher in the Night serving as both a refreshing departure and a comfortingly recognizable return. ~ Marcy Donelson