Summer, in all its glory, peaks in July. And just the same, on the 17th of last month Bad Bad Hats hit a high note with all that is Psychic Reader: the timing, the content, and the style culminate in a bright, infectious, and earnest album that’s better than anything currently on the radio. Windows down, wandering around town, hanging with friends – whatever you’re up to this summer, Bad Bad Hats has the album you’ll find yourself listening to again and again while doing it.
Kerry Alexander (vocals, guitar, primary creative mind) is joined by Chris Hoge (drums) and Noah Boswell (bass) to make up a trio formed through friendships and Macalester College. It’s been a good five years now since Alexander and Hoge started jamming together, and Boswell’s addition in 2012 led to their It Hurts EP with Afternoon Records in early 2013. Since then they’re been played shows regularly, from small living room gatherings to bigger stages around the area. For this release, they worked with producer Brett Bullion (Polica, Lizzo, Chris Koza) and spent good time waiting to do it right. They’re real people who write real, genuine music, excited about the process and the project more than any rock star status, which makes the attention they’re getting this time around – like being featured on NPR – so well deserved.
The final product feels effortless: sleek and poppy but not overproduced. The band themselves has joked on Tumblr about throwbacks to the days of Michelle Branch, and I can’t help but feel like Psychic Reader is the ultimate album for those of us 90’s kids who’ve never really wanted to grow up. And in an age when Top 40 stations assault the ears with women belting high notes in some attempt to shatter a new record, Bad Bad Hats’ Alexander dictates, murmurs, and oohs and ahhs so delightfully that it makes my ears tingle and ask for more.
She’s not aiming to comment on anyone else’s life, or society as a whole; simply in touch with the times without needing to overtly comment on them. In “All-Nighter,” she narrates a familiar sentiment: “…I stay up all night to see if you’ll write me / buzzing on my cell phone, step outside the friend zone” but with the modern patience of, “if there are words you won’t say, I’ll wait, that’s okay / but if you think you might, I’ll be there tonight.” Alexander tells it like it is, feelings and desires in the open, but with no hurried agenda.
There’s also no hatred on this album, but a good dose of honesty, angst, and personal musings. Alexander nonchalantly points out in closing track “Spin,” that “I’ve been meaning to tell you, I don’t wanna die for you.” While in opener and music video, “Midway,” she full out admits that it wasn’t all easy, playfully retelling, “Midway between the end and the start, I cried liked a baby, I tore you apart.” The drums, bass, guitars, and amusing electronic elements dive straight into grunge and alternative on “Shame,” with a sound that’s rough and stylistic vocals to match. In each song, the lyrics and the composition are so well paired, it’s hard to tell what came first. At times they contradict, and at others they tell the same story. Whatever the theme, though, each song holds its own, with a distinct concept and feel. Done Bad Bad Hats style, of course.
It’s hard to pick a favorite, or to skip a track once the album is rolling. From the animated and bouncy “Joseph,” to the feisty tones of “Fight Song” and danceable “Cruella,” every song was picked to perfect with purpose. There’s no filler here, no need for extra length, or to hide that this truly is an indie pop record. Short and sweet, Psychic Reader clocks in at 33 minutes. But it may just be the best half hour of your whole summer. It’s nostalgic in that feel-good way, but there’s nothing ‘past’ about it: it’s in the here and now. And like the title track itself states, this release was “meant for you.” Just don’t go waiting to take a listen.
Afternoon Records Presents:
Bad Bad Hats ‘Psychic Reader’ Album Release Party – Sponsored by 89.3 The Current
w/ special guests The Awful Truth
10:30 doors, 11pm showtime
$8advance/$10door
21+
https://www.facebook.com/events/1046657108691738/
https://www.facebook.com/badbadhats
https://badbadhats.bandcamp.com/
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