Rasputina (led by Melora Creager) are not new on the scene and "Sister Kinderhook" is, at least, their 6th studio full length.
But there's something special going on here.
While this collection of songs is clearly and identifiably Rasputina (Melora's playing and singing are so distinctly *hers*, the subject* matter common ground for her lyrical mill, Creager can still effortlessly shift from melancholy to whimsy) it seems as if the band has entered a new stage, a new era.
Rasputina continue to follow their own path into alternate-reality pop music, and some songs can be harsher and more driving than others, but it seems that the band has exorcised all of the blatant "rockisms".
This isn't a band trying to recreate rock guitar on cello, it's a band creating something that is special and unique to their cello-pop vision.
The pieces are written and played with the distinct self-confidence and maturity of a fully-fledged artist who knows the path they want to take and has the vision and drive to take us with them.
As such this may be the first album by Rasputina that doesn't grab you by the collar and demand attention as it does lull you in and lead you down fourteen pathways that find you wonderfully lost in time and around the world.
Recommended.
*feral girls, 1844 rent disputes, "sisters" distananced by a couple of hundreds of years, culturally short sighted giants and the like
