Sheridan
(India) Believe it or not, people besides 22-year-old peroxide ingenues and stripper-obsessed Atlanta producers can make great pop music. In fact, some of them live right here in Austin. Longtime local Sheridan Roalson, a veteran of the marginally successful bands Telray and the Sheridans, has gathered her friends from the India Records stable and made a striking album of intriguing variety and admirable maturity. Loosely connected by the adult-oriented themes of commitment, fidelity, and perseverance, each song is nevertheless its own unique entity, impeccably arranged into a lush portfolio of longing and romantic self-examination by Roalson and producer Mark Addison. Since the two play nearly 20 different instruments all told, it’s no surprise the album is a wildly disparate collection of textures: the languid sitar flourishes of “Into the Blue,” pulsating rock drive of “Undertow,” gentle folk breeze of “Still I Want You,” and pensive piano accompaniment of “Madness,” to name a few. Roalson’s throaty, almost teasing vocals act as both unifying and stabilizing forces, never allowing her or her band to get sidetracked; witness Will Sexton’s Tom Petty-ish “Crueler Possibilities” and Davíd Garza’s lolling “Bloodsuckers.” Save for KGSR, this is pop music you’re unlikely to hear on the radio and definitely won’t see on MTV, which makes it all the more worthwhile, because hard-to-find treasures are often the most valuable.
This article appears in February 27 • 2004.