In her single years, Britta Pejic (née Thompson) was a member of The Bigamy Sisters in Austin, Texas. In 2000 she married and moved to France where she started a family. Now back in the USA, living in Portland, Maine and working as an ESL teacher, she has made this eccentric 'solo' album with a little help from her friends.
Hers are curious, though not overtly comic, acoustic songs, occasionally fleshed out with bass, drums, cello and electric or pedal steel guitar. The songs are written from a highly personal, and often obscure, perspective; her world as seen from the garage, backyard or kitchen window. These are not love songs.
The cover shot is of her dog,'Ollie', standing on a sofa emphasises the tone of skewed domesticity while the photo of her on the inner sleeve seems to be a send up of earnest protest singers. It shows her singing alongside a man in a bird costume who is holding up a hand-made placard which says 'I'M AGAINST IT!'
There's a self consciously idiosyncratic quality to her lyrics on tracks like Old Cold Bold and, even more so on Lonely Kitchen Zealot where she seizes the chance to rhyme 'chef' with 'bereft' and relishes the chance to sing couplets like "it's ready to be served / with the hors d'oeuvres".
The album title comes from a song about plate tectonics Seismic Ballad(e) while Allium Invasion is described as "a song about a giant onion as the cause of an energy crisis".
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By far the best song is the opening track - The Sky And The Woman - where the straightforwardness of lines like "You've got to do yourself a favour - you've got to get yourself together" come as a relief . This song also suggests that she's actually at her best when singing in front of a full band rather than as a solo act.
Summercholy is a lively song bemoaning the unpredictability of seasonal weather and Heavy Heart, about a man with a heart condition, shows she's not afraid to take on delicate subject matter.
Three bonus tracks flirt unconvincingly with psychedelic sounds, including an instrumental (Fluzzerly Squizzed) which belongs to another record.
All in all this is a lively mix even though she too often gets bogged down with wordy lyrics. A little less quirkiness and more plain-speaking would have made for a healthier balance.
Britta Pejic's website
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