New Music Review: SICK OF SARAH '2205'

Rating: 7.5 / 10 Stars

SICK OF SARAH is: Abisha Uhl (lead vocals/guitar), Jessica Forsythe (drums), Katie Farmer (guitars and backup vocals), Jamie Holm (bass guitar/backup vocals), Jessie Farmer (guitar/backup vocals)

REVIEW – I got an email asking me a pretty simple question: “James, I hear you are into female musicians. Have you heard Sick of Sarah’s new album yet?”

I had to play stupid. I had never heard their last album. In fact, I really had not heard anything they had done. Sometimes that is actually the best way to go into a record. No expectations. No hype. Nothing telling you what you are supposed to think before you hit play.

Well, ten songs later, I can proudly say I have heard of Sick of Sarah now.

The first thing that jumped out at me about 2205 is the energy. There is something immediately familiar about this band, but they are not locked into one particular sound. At different moments I hear the reckless attitude of The Runaways, the indie-rock spirit of Sleater-Kinney and that catchy, pop-driven swagger you would associate with The Donnas. The difference is that Sick of Sarah do not seem interested in repeating the exact same formula from one song to the next.

That may have been the biggest surprise for me. No two songs really feel exactly alike.

A lot of bands discover something that works and then spend an entire album beating you over the head with it. Sick of Sarah seem much more comfortable changing things around. They are still clearly the same band from song to song, but the personality shifts enough to keep 2205 moving.

“Cigarettes,” for instance, gives me a Rainer Maria kind of feeling. Then you get into songs like “Kiss Me” and “Overexposure,” and suddenly I am hearing shades of Letters to Cleo and, dare I say it, even a little Heart in some of the melody.

Those comparisons may sound like they are all over the place, but that is part of what makes this album fun. Sick of Sarah can pull from several different corners of rock without making the record feel like a confused mess.

The musicians also understand something that plenty of bands never figure out: you do not have to play over each other to sound powerful.

Nobody seems desperate to steal the spotlight. The guitars, bass and drums work together instead of fighting for space, and that makes the songs feel much bigger and cleaner than they would if everyone were constantly trying to show off. The band complements the sound, and more importantly, they complement each other.

Abisha Uhl is interesting as a vocalist because she does not approach every song the same way either. At times she sounds completely confident taking command of the track. At other moments, she leans heavily on the backing vocals from Katie, Jessie and Jamie to help carry the chorus.

And weirdly enough, it works.

Instead of sounding like a weakness, those layered vocals become part of Sick of Sarah’s personality. The harmonies give some of these songs an almost communal feeling, like the whole band is pushing the chorus forward rather than everything resting on one voice.

“Giving Up” and “Simple Parts” take me somewhere else again. Those songs have a rougher indie quality that reminds me of something you might have heard from The Like or Vivian Girls before everything was polished completely smooth. There is an immediacy to them that helps keep the album from becoming too clean or predictable.

If you are a fan of bands like The Like or Vivian Girls, those songs should definitely speak to you.

What I ultimately enjoy about 2205 is that Sick of Sarah sound like a band that understands their influences without being afraid to bounce between them. I can hear pieces of several bands I already enjoy, but the record never becomes nothing more than an imitation of those artists.

There is enough personality here to make Sick of Sarah stand on their own.

As a whole, I had a really good time with this album. Maybe part of that comes from the fact that I am already a fan of so many of the bands that 2205 brings to mind. At times it almost feels like somebody took several of my favorite sounds, threw them into a room together and let Sick of Sarah have their way with them.

That is not a bad thing.

2205 is energetic, catchy, varied and, most importantly, fun. I went into this record knowing practically nothing about Sick of Sarah.

Ten songs later, they definitely had my attention.