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Album reviews Music

The Sweetness – What’s It Like To Be A Sprinkler, I Wonder?

THE SWEETNESS play the Rivoli Saturday (July 16). See listing. Rating: NN


Toronto songwriter Chloe Charles and bassist Sam McLellan recently teamed up with Austin’s Aly Tadros and Douglas Jay Boyd for a stairwell jam at a Folk Alliance conference in Memphis, where they were named the Sweetness by an audience member. Their debut EP sounds like a lo-fi demo, even though producer Gordon Raphael (the Strokes, Regina Spektor) recorded it.

All members contribute songs, with the theatrical Charles and the gentler Tadros each taking lead twice, while McLellan’s bow work and Boyd’s light drumming add support. None of the writing is particularly strong, and Boyd’s condescending Little Girl, with its sippy-cups references, makes for an awkward listen. The group harmonies are the sweetest part, and it’d be nice to hear more from McLellan, whose First Bird evokes Tasseomancy.

Top track: First Bird

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