The second full-length album from this Philadelphia quartet is notable mainly for the distinctive rasp of female vocalist Frances Quinlan. The range, passion and rawness of her voice is impressive even though it becomes more forced and shouty on the quieter parts of tunes like Happy To See Me and Well-dressed.
She is joined by her brother Mark on drums, Tyler Long on bass and Joe Reinhart on guitar. This backing band is described as "growling guitar grunge" although, in truth, it's often more like a mix of classic rock and indie pop; think The Pixies or The Strokes.
Painted Shut comes three years on from their debut 'Get Disowned' and was recorded and mixed by John Agnello (Kurt Vile, Dinosaur Jr, Sonic Youth) in Brooklyn and Philly.
Apparently, the album in partly inspired by the lives of two little-known musicians: cornetist Buddy Bolden (1877 - 1931) and 60s folk-singer Jackson C. Frank, both artists who are linked by misfortune in that they each suffered from mental illness and died penniless.
Buddy In The Parade is presumably about the former but these connections are far from obvious. Actually, saying what any of the ten songs is about is no easy task since the lyrics are either unclear or else seem fairly abstract. These are certainly not straightforward verse-chorus-verse songs.
When interviewed at the time of the band's first album, Quinlan admitted "My writing is quite all over the place. I'm almost never writing about strictly one subject".
An exception that proves the rule here is Powerful Man which adopts the perspective of a teenager witnessing a violent man abusing his 8-year son. The grainy video for this song fits the mood of this grim subject matter.
The jerky and jangly Ticket To Ride-like rhythms of Waitress make this a highlight. The song is apparently based on the experience of serving a meal to an ex's new girlfriend.
Other similarly bouncy pop-tones surface on I Saw My Twin ("it's pretty good to be alive") and Sister Cities while Horseshoe Crabs and Texas Funeral (inspired by the Western 'Hud') tap into a feistier rock attitude.
At times Quinlan strains a bit too hard in an effort to make an impact but the spontaneous energy of this album carries the day.
