Suspirians

(Super Secret Records)

The difference between hearing a song and experiencing it distinguishes good bands from great ones. Suspirians’ eponymous debut delivers the goods with feeling. The local quartet’s disjointed guitars and vocal sass of frontwoman Marisa Pool recall impassioned Nineties femme punks Heavens to Betsy and Bratmobile, the seven-song long-player blending raucous rock inspiration with crisp Sixties surf-pop. Standout “In My Time” flexes Pool’s bratty style and clean licks, which slowly crescendo into an eventual noise frenzy. Raw and DIY, but with intent, Suspirians will ideally serve as the foundation on which the group fortifies its uniqueness by bridging the gap between musical influences and budding aesthetic. Some might consider this debut’s rudimentary bareness amateurish, but that camp never understood the appeal of bands like Pavement, a group that, like Suspirians, proved great feeling can flourish in music despite its creators’ air of apathy and/or lack of technical precision.

***.5

This article appears in August 8 • 2014.

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