Now, now is the time. Now is the time for another review. I’ve decided to review an…avant garde? Noise? Jazz? Record? I really don’t know what to call it exactly because it’s unlike anything I’ve really listened to. I feel like I have played similar music though with Rusty People (about two of you know what I’m talking about). Little women is a four piece band from New York, but they feature a pretty strange lineup. They have one guitar player, a drummer, and two saxophone players (one tenor and one alto). Little Women’s album, “Throat”, was released in April of last year on AUM Fidelity records. The first thing I want to say about this record is that I don’t really think of this record as a collection of songs, but more as a “sound experience”. I know only a very few amount of people will be able to appreciate this record, but I think if you give it a chance, you might find something pretty interesting in here. And by “pretty interesting”, I mean completely disorienting and downright frightening. I’ve really never had an album make me feel the way this one does, and I’m always very hesitant on revisiting it because it’s something that’s just so ugly and so intense that it’s really hard to take sometimes. If I have this record on just in the background while I’m doing something, it’s pretty desensitizing and boarders on annoying, but when I’m listening to this with headphones on, alone, only focusing on the record, it literally makes me feel like I’m going insane and I just feel like screaming and sobbing and I just want to tear off all my clothes. The strangest thing about this whole thing is there are no effects on any of the instruments. Everything is very raw. Even the guitar tone is stripped down to just a standard clean tone. There’s not an ounce of reverb on anything and it’s so interesting to me that this band was able to provoke such emotions out of me with all of these very bare sounding instruments. Most tracks on here I feel are all trying to do the same thing; essentially pulverize your mind and make you feel like you are going insane. There is one oddball here though, and that is the track “Throat IV”, which actually ends up sounding very pretty in certain parts, and is one of my favorite tracks on the album. Listening to this track on its own, I’m able to appreciate how beautiful this track is, but in the context of the album it just makes me feel like I’m going even more crazy because there’s this random curveball that is sent your way and I just can’t wrap my mind around what is happening. I know the majority of the people who end up listening to this thing will just dismiss it as “a bunch of noise”, but I really think there is something more going on here. If you really focus hard on this thing, there is definitely a purpose and an emotion Little Women is trying to get at, and I believe they really succeed. This album is a strong 8 for me, it’s pretty incredible but also just really out there and it makes it hard for me to revisit this record. What do you think though? Love it? Hate it? Why? Also, what should I review next? Rating: 8/10 Favorite Tracks: Throat I: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AnK8ksUWqTU Throat III: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zmkSypeoTMc&feature=related Throat IV: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_wc9CgKs_8s&feature=related Artists you might also enjoy: Rusty People, The musical styling’s of John Morrow. If you enjoyed this album, support the artist.
