Hard & Sweet by Thrift Bakery
The fifth long-player by the indie pop group spawned by the jangle pop scene in Winston-Salem, N.C., was released Friday, September 10, 2021, on all international streaming services.
The band takes sound quality seriously and the production is crisp, bright and ringing.
The first single was “Water’s Edge,” an uptempo guitar-driven song that brings urgency back to indie pop.
The 11-track release combines indie and synth pop with bursts of rap, sprinkling its tunefulness with just the right amount of tension and dissonance.
Thrift Bakery is edgy, funny and melodic, mixing elements as diverse moody dream pop and guitar-infused hip hop.
Terrie Cloth has a natural singing voice like Greta Kline and Sidney Gish that deposits the songs between edgy and sunny. Dlux brings the energy of The Killers’ Brandon Flowers, but his moody delivery is a full octave lower.
Unsettled by recent events but finding solace in outdoor rambles, Thrift Bakery evokes indie stalwarts like Wye Oak and Big Thief in expanding sonic boundaries. Multi-instrumentalist Bob Hair maintains the space within the songs, which are hook-filled and hummable but push experimental limits in the brief pop format. Terrie’s bass lines keep the tempo on point, funky and swinging.
Guitarist Tater Totts anchors the group to its jangle pop roots of Winston-Salem, N.C., but his intricate and diverse stylings undergird the melodic turns of urban music found in several Thrift Bakery songs.
All songs are FCC-compliant.
Tracklist
| 1. | 60 Going Nowhere | 4:00 |
| 2. | Arthur McBride and the Sergeant | 4:58 |
| 3. | Nature Song | 4:12 |
| 4. | Not Just Another Rap Song | 3:40 |
| 5. | Sending All My Love to You | 4:21 |
| 6. | Small Things | 4:12 |
| 7. | Water's Edge | 4:03 |
| 8. | Count of Monte Cristo | 3:18 |
| 9. | Quarantine Pandemic Blues (dance mix) | 3:19 |
| 10. | Sorry You Got Caught | 3:44 |
| 11. | Slot Canyon | 3:43 |
Credits
License
All rights reserved.
Quirky but melodic indie pop with dashes of rap and hip hop. The group performed and recorded in the Carolinas and in DC from 1985 until 1990. Their first record, “Freshness Test,” came out on Hopewell Records in 1988. The self-released “Tender Moments” appeared in 1989. “Mediocre Criminals” was released in 2017. The band members have been social distancing for a generation.