These Musical Sisters Excel in New Albums

Katie and Allison Crutchfield, of Waxahatchee and Swearin’, make beautiful—but separate—art.

Album Reviews

Swearin’
Fall Into the Sun
Merge

Waxahatchee
Great Thunder
Merge

Whether collaborating in the now-departed P.S. Eliot or working separately, sisters Katie and Allison Crutchfield excel at urgent rock and roll combining garage-band scruffiness and confessional intimacy. On Fall Into the Sun, the third album by the rebooted Swearin’, Allison and fellow singer-songwriter Kyle Gilbride explore wobbly and doomed relationships in tunes shaped by buzzing electric guitars and insistent vocals that are passionate rather than polished (which is a good thing). She tends to be more straightforward, at one point asking, “Will you come back soon and/Let me love you completely/Or will I watch you grow into a ghost?” though he seems equally discombobulated. Either way, it’s like sneaking a tantalizing guilty peek at someone’s diary.

Meanwhile, Katie shifts gears dramatically on the six-track EP Great Thunder, unplugging and slowing down to expose the anguished heart that defines much of her best work. Piano, acoustic guitar, and even banjo provide a peaceful backdrop that only emphasizes her raw emotions as she wails, “I cried all night when you came to my side,” or murmurs, “You left me with an ocean on this rotten day,” roiling in gloom. Absorbing and exhausting, this 18-minute gem packs a cathartic wallop, despite its brevity.

Fact:

Mother Jones was founded as a nonprofit in 1976 because we knew corporations and billionaires wouldn't fund the type of hard-hitting journalism we set out to do.

Today, reader support makes up about two-thirds of our budget, allows us to dig deep on stories that matter, and lets us keep our reporting free for everyone. If you value what you get from Mother Jones, please join us with a tax-deductible donation today so we can keep on doing the type of journalism 2022 demands.

payment methods

Fact:

Today, reader support makes up about two-thirds of our budget, allows us to dig deep on stories that matter, and lets us keep our reporting free for everyone. If you value what you get from Mother Jones, please join us with a tax-deductible donation today so we can keep on doing the type of journalism 2022 demands.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate