You Can’t Lift Up A Story So Heavy

Waxahatchee “Brother Bryan”

Katie Crutchfield’s songs are deceptively simple, to the point that you can go a while before realizing most of her tunes have no chorus, and are essentially just verses and bridges. “Brother Bryan,” for example, rolls along on a Kim Deal-style bass line, sturdy but not quite steady as she sings a melody that gently winds around those notes like a braid. Her melodies are so sticky that it seems like straight forward pop anyway, and besides, a lot of the point is for the melody to keep you focused on her words. She makes you hang on every line, with each tune coming off like a stream-of-conscious conversation, and you’re both surprised when the metaphors string, or an aside comes across more like a confession.

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