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Alternative, folk, indie pop, singer-songwriter, soul, Brooklyn.

When you've been anointed a "next big thing" by gilded outlets such as Pitchfork and Rolling Stone, there's a danger of being typecast. With an ethereal voice and guitar chops for days, Brooklyn-based singer-songwriter Margaret Glaspy is already wearing a cape as the Next Great Indie-Rock Hero.

Observe Glaspy's irresistible charm and effortless sense of cool in the video for "Act Natural," the first single from her acclaimed 2023 LP, Echo the Diamond. All fuzzy guitars and indie-rock stomp, the song shows Glaspy at the intersection of riot grrrl and ingénue as she takes turns sipping coffee and riffing on her guitar in a kitchen, amplifier perched on the counter.

The power-trio sound of Echo the Diamond followed her more pop-leaning, synth-heavy 2020 LP, Devotion. But on her new EP, The Sun Doesn't Think, Glaspy takes a whole different approach, which she'll bring to Brattleboro for a performance at the Stone Church on Friday, May 10.

On a recent phone call from her home, she recalled how, as she toured with her band, rocking out every night with her beloved electric guitars, she found herself turning to her acoustic guitar after the shows.

"When you're touring, you're repeating yourself a lot, musically," Glaspy said.

To keep her mind creating, she found herself writing folk songs in hotel rooms. On Echo, she had "covered the songs in electric guitar," as she put it, but she quickly realized she wanted to do something different with this sparse music, capturing its immediacy.

"It's the difference between photography and sculpture," she said. "There are musicians who are so incredibly talented at meticulously sculpting a record. But I like to take a photo — I've time-stamped my life very freshly with this EP."

The Sun Doesn't Think is a five-song collection of hushed, intimate ballads that feature only Glaspy and her acoustic. With everything else stripped away, the Northern California-born singer-songwriter stares straight into the camera and delivers one hell of a confessional.

The moment "24/7" kicks off the record, the listener is transported to Glaspy's living room, staring across a coffee table as she strums her guitar.

"I just want you to feel all right / I'm not even on my own side / I'll be the sacrifice / Go ahead, serve me on rice," she sings. "Or do you think that I'm trying too hard? / You've known me since I was counting stars."

The Sun Doesn't Think is the sound of Glaspy glorying in adulthood. Now in her mid-thirties, she finds herself looking back at her childhood and re-evaluating her notions of love and happiness.

"I delight in being an adult," Glaspy said. "It's such fertile ground as a songwriter. You have to contend with the world, and it's a lot, but I just find it so refreshing."

There's no more adult-sounding song title than "I Need Help." Harmonizing with herself over a clever guitar lick, Glaspy takes a hard look in the mirror and realizes she might be in trouble.

"I need help," she sings, almost breathlessly. "And it's hard to admit it / but I've burned all of my bridges."

The tricky thing about making a record as naked as The Sun Doesn't Think is that it involves losing the partition between yourself and your audience. While Glaspy didn't obscure her true self on her previous records, there's an extra edge of intimacy in her latest release.

A skilled and clever songwriter, Glaspy also works with characters in a similar way to her favorite songwriters, Tom Waits and Bob Dylan. On "Would You Be My Man?" she sings in the voice of a "nameless heroine I dreamed up."

"There's a knife by the door that you don't know about," she sings, as a sinister-sounding melody suffuses the song with gothic dread. "There's a few numbers in my book that you don't know / But you don't need to know about 'em."

"I have these characters and environments that live in my life and write songs through me," Glaspy said of her process. "I love getting acquainted with them; it reminds me what the job description is."

By the time the title track brings the EP to a close, the record has vindicated Glaspy's choice to make it quick and dirty. Would a ballad like "Bathtub" sound incredible with her full band fleshing it out? Absolutely. But sometimes a songwriter knows when to let space and sparseness work for the music, and Glaspy reveals herself as a master of letting it be on The Sun Doesn't Think.

"These songs just felt like they were supposed to be acoustic," Glaspy said. "Electric guitar feels like my performance vehicle. Usually the only one hearing me play acoustic is my husband while I'm sitting around the house. So this is me being a little more vulnerable, letting people into the house."

She'll take that vulnerability on the road this summer and do a small run of solo acoustic shows, living the life of a folk singer.

"There's a sweetness and purity to showing up at the venue with just an acoustic guitar, no amps or pedals or a band," Glaspy said. "It's just you and the audience, and that has its own beauty."

She said she's especially excited to play the songs on the new EP. "They're fresh from the farm to the market," she joked. "You can't beat that instant transmission of playing songs that are so of the moment."

The Sun Doesn't Think is the sound of a songwriter issuing a raw, honest update. The guitars and indie snarl will return, but for now, Glaspy needs a little quiet time.

Tracks:
01. 24/7
02. Bathtub
03. I Need Help
04. Would You Be My Man
05. The Sun Doesn’t Think

Staat er compleet op, 10% pars mee gepost. Met zeer veel dank aan de originele poster. Laat af en toe eens weten wat je van het album vindt. Altijd leuk, de mening van anderen. Oh ja, MP3 doe ik niet aan.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ue3frTsOzHA