Peggy Sue - Fossils and Other Phantoms
Tuesday, May 18, 2010 at 12:25PM 
Despite its rough lo-fi edges, bare bones production and lyrics that ache with bruised emotions, Fossils and Other Phantoms (June 1, Yep Roc) from British anti-folk trio Peggy Sue finds its own dark beauty in the strikingly direct harmonies of Katy Young and Rosa Slade. This is music of bitter winds and storm clouds, raw and biting in pain and melancholy as if any protection against the exposed elements is stripped clean. Guitar, mandolin, accordion are the backdrop for Young and Slade's paired vocals, drummer Olly Joyce adding percussion that moves from brushed snare to rhythmic firepower as harmonies bend, break and soar unfettered.
Recorded in London and New York's Lower East Side, Fossils is a disarming mix of PJ Harvey, Indigo Girls and Kimya Dawson, the scruffy cousin of U.K. neo-acoustic thrush Laura Marling and pub-folk skifflers Mumford and Sons. Lead track "Watchman" sums up the Peggy Sue style with intertwined harmonies and shadowy minor chords knocking up against Joyce's thumping bass drum and scattershot cacophony. "The Shape We Made" is a gem of acoustic punk simplicity as single plucked strings give way to slowly building tension, vocals drifting from a sweet whisper to impassioned shout. Says Q: "(An) amiably unvarnished debut...a bit punky, a bit folky, even a bit rockabilly, but always refreshingly themselves." Recommended.
Peggy Sue - "Watchman" (from the album Fossils and Other Phantoms)
Peggy Sue - "The Shape We Made" (from the album Fossils and Other Phantoms)









































