Avery Fredman is a Brooklyn-based artist. “New Thing” is her debut album, released via Audio Antihero.
“Into” (and not intRo, which I really liked!) sets the mood wonderfully creating a sparse soundscape with slow strumming and reverbed guitars, as well as some voice-over in the background. It is almost a meditative mood, so when the first track “New Thing” comes in, it feels much more upbeat and grounded creating a very nice transition, as we are introduced to the voice of the artist.
This is indie pop at its best, with simple and efficient songwriting, putting the focus on the vocals (and her voice is expressive and beautiful) and the guitars. I was very surprised by “Photo Booth” which is a bit more electro and punk and as I am a fool for all things synth, I am not objective at all here, and this is surely my favourite track.
Most songs in the album are quite subtle and instantly create images by the use of the production, arrangements, and sounds. It is as diverse as an album should be in my opinion, as it is best to “flirt” with all of an artist’s favourite genres, and influences/references, but still offer a wide pallet of emotions and colours with the compiled songs.
Great use of dynamic build in “Finger Painting”, creating a very emotional soundscape which eventually becomes a wall of sound, still in the confines of indie, guitar-centric sound. “Somewhere to go” is a bit more rough around the edges, quite grungy at times, in the same way Soundgarden would be grungy, but not heavy at all, and certainly not dated. Lovely harmonies on this one, and subtle dissonances create possibly the darkest track of the album.
Personally, I can hear Tori Amos, Alanis Morissette, grunge from the 90s, and even artists like Mazzy Star, with influences from folk and country rock/pop, as well as Americana. It seems to me that artists from the States (I am from Europe myself) excel in this type of sound, and what I find even more interesting as a child of the 90s’, (hence all the references I mentioned above, I am sure someone younger would have a very different take on this sound) is that the style of this album is surely influenced by those 90s artists (and all the indie films of the time as well) whether the artists themselves are aware of it or not, in the same way that if someone is doing soul music, Stevie Wonder would surely be found in their compositions every now and then.
But all these young artists also grew up with Netflix, and I keep hearing a cinematic, filmlike sound and vibe in “New Thing”, that I would bet is influenced by that, as well as a whole generation growing up in a digital and anxious age, finding solace in nostalgia and expressing themselves with more organic sounds and genres.
To sum this all up, I usually find albums of this style to be much more effective played live, but Freeman’s voice is so good, and the production is very honest and well put together that it definitely took me on a trip for those 28 minutes and 24 seconds.
Written by Spiros Maus
