Burlington, VT based “Clever Girls” may not be completely made up of females, but front gal, singer and guitar slinger Diane Jean is as badass as they come in the current rock n’ roll landscape. The trio just released a new EP titled “Loose Tooth” today, a 5 track grungy collection of attitude and emotion that hits hard…but hits so damn good.
The title track kicks in hard with a “1, 2, 3, 4″…evocating of my first rock show, eliciting emotion and memories. There is a sort of nostalgia when I listen to these songs. Melodic guitar lines ring out, but hit the distortion pedal at just the right moments to take you somewhere else completely in the song (and your head) as you dial into the words be sung.
There is a delicate balance struck that is at moments soft and vulnerable, as the song “45” displays fully in its first minute, and then dives fully into the raucous flurry of chords and hard hitting drums, before sinking back into the pool of melancholia that the band spins effortlessly. A beautiful display of pandemonium that lifts me to this plain of happiness and heartache at the same time. A magical thing.
“We Tried” is a slow burning homage to those conversations you have in your own head about a relationship gone wrong. The questions you constantly barrage yourself with, the “what ifs?” that drift over a trickling of light guitar notes, until that overdrive rock aspect kicks in again.
now I’m here watching the ticks on the clock
and I’m wondering aloud “hey, who will you fuck?”
At the core “Loose Tooth” is a good and straight forward rock n’ roll record in the garage band sense of the term. Diane Jean’s voice borders on territories of pop-jazzy its inflections, but she can deliver a line with grit and conviction that is truly stirring, affecting and f*cking real. The writing is heavy, but still manages to hold onto that catchy vibe that makes you want to listen over and over again. Winfield Holt and Robert Slater’s playing here in their respective bass and drumming roles are the glue that holds it all together brilliantly. Write this up as one of the more heartfelt and hard hitting emotion driven projects in the first half of the year. Dig it, folks.