Oakland’s Christina’s Trip have released F.B.A.T., the first single from Cherub Dream Records‘ excellent 3-act EP, “Lucky Three” (with Natasha Sandworms and Mox). The track is awash in hook-laden introspection and verdant reverb, a stunning tune worthy of exhaustive repetition.
The reflective and autobiographical narration regards the awareness of ones environs, the level of perceived and therefore perpetual threat therein, and who charitably installs this impression upon us. It moves gracefully outside the predictable; direct, nuanced, funny, and convincing (“sweat is bleeding down my cool neck/I am frightened by a tree”).
The avid guitar hook advances in the latter stages while some field elements fortify the verse. And all that care put into realizing that which was envisioned is apparent and a relief in the headphones. It pays homage to a lot of noise pop you don’t need me to name and sits essentially timeless beside them (Grass Widow, Vivian Girls, Good Flying Birds).
The whole set is telegraphed to be one of those small-run gems of the era, a solid record end to end. If only you had twenty bucks. Otherwise the digital album is $5 on the bandcamp. For a short, maybe you can watch Diane Cam Van Nguyen’s “Love, Dad” after; it’s also great.
Plainly & Painfully 