Without a lot of fanfare, there's a new album from Cassie Ramone (Vivian Girls, The Babies) upon us. Sweetheart, released on Cassie's website and YouTube on June 28, is a compelling journey. It's an epic-length record (in its download form) that breezes by, and a deeply personal release that's still wildly pleasureable.
Opener "I'm Going Home" lurched into my heart right away. It sounds like it was recorded on an old tape recorder, with Cassie's voice a bit deep in the mix. The guitars have a woozy churn about them. The whole thing is borderline hypnotic and transfixing. Elsewhere, the lumbering "He's Still on My Mind" has a grim fatalism about it, the JAMC-style production by collaborator Dylan White giving this one an otherworldly effect, while "Together" revs up a bit and features a guitar that's more prominently placed in the mix than Ramone's voice. The result is a sound that is like something heard in a dream that is nearly slipping away from you upon waking.
The most direct number on Sweetheart is "The Only Way I Know How", feauturing Mac DeMarco on guitar and drums. The tune has a fuzzy charm about it, and a nearly Yacht Rock-ish bass-line. That one is a highlight here, as is "Dilly Dally", a country twang-imbued ramble near the end of the record. Closer "Wait a Minute" is one of many tracks here which features a guitar rave-up worthy of a Vivian Girls record, though Cassie Ramone here is more interested in mood and nuance than something that direct.
Sweetheart is an album to get lost in. It's got a charm about that that seems to owe a debt to artists as disparate as The Telescopes, Angel Olsen, and Swirlies. Cassie Ramone has made something special here, something a bit to the left of her work in Vivian Girls and The Babies, but also close enough in temper to those bands as to feel a bit familiar and altogether just as special.
Sweetheart is out now via Cassie Ramone's official website: www.CassieRamone.com.
[Photo: Cassie Ramone press team]