Rachel Brown's work as thanks for coming feels worlds away from the shattered art rock they make with Nate Amos as Water from Your Eyes. Where Everyone's Crushed, the duo's last record, found them playing with jittery electronic textures and walloping circular rhythms, Brown's latest solo release is a modest kernel of small-scale indie rock.
Somehow though, What Is My Capacity to Love? feels just as impactful as the concrete-smashing weirdness of Everyone's Crushed. Brown's songwriting is economical and unassuming, but they understand the power of repetition and have a knack for throwback twee-punk melodies.
There are shades of sideways strangeness in the marching "Tusk" rhythm of "Melted," but Brown's songs are strongest when they lean into their traditional pop instincts — the meat-and-potatoes thump of "Unlimited Love" and the jangle pop swirl of "Try Again" are the EP's strongest moments, two perfectly unvarnished gems. Working with the most basic ingredients, Brown can make love's mundanities feel life-shifting.
(Danger Collective Records)Somehow though, What Is My Capacity to Love? feels just as impactful as the concrete-smashing weirdness of Everyone's Crushed. Brown's songwriting is economical and unassuming, but they understand the power of repetition and have a knack for throwback twee-punk melodies.
There are shades of sideways strangeness in the marching "Tusk" rhythm of "Melted," but Brown's songs are strongest when they lean into their traditional pop instincts — the meat-and-potatoes thump of "Unlimited Love" and the jangle pop swirl of "Try Again" are the EP's strongest moments, two perfectly unvarnished gems. Working with the most basic ingredients, Brown can make love's mundanities feel life-shifting.
