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Here are some genre related musical terms (in no specific order or hyphenation) to describe Petite Leagues debut album, Slugger: garage, pop, surf, rock, DIY, basement. The only term that really matters though, is fucking great.

Released just last month, Lorenzo Gillis Cook (guitar/vocals) and Henry Schoonmaker (drums) remind us that saying how you feel is a lot easier than we don’t think it is. Slugger is ten tracks filled with truth and talent, perfectly placing this Syracuse-based band in the big leagues…despite their name. 12186751_933152906753755_2867148742588299213_o

The album opens with Ocean Honey, the shortest, yet lyrically and instrumentally heaviest track.

I breathe with air so heavy and I keep my hands from trembling for you. I taste honey In the ocean blue It was probably you.”

The words weigh heavy while the instrumentals feel airy - a contrast that creates a connection with listeners.

The album is so bluntly, and so greatly, an ode to youth, love, and the inevitable loss of both those things.

 

Surviving October, a track previously released last year, is one of our favorites word wise. From blatant truths like, I don’t wanna taste your summer cum, and you don’t wanna taste mine, to harsh realities like, You’ve never been in love with you so you don’t know what I’m going through,” and daily ordinaries like, I can peel an orange in one whole piece, (which is a talent I appreciate, and strive to one day have), Petite League is straightforward in both style and sound.

My Black Lungs is just about as dark as the title suggest. Backed by speedy guitar playing and loud drum banging, listeners not only hear the heartbreak of a love lost, but feel it too. Not Always Happy, in all its glory, has an extremely addictive quality that makes it just a little better realizing that you’re not always supposed to be happy.”

Time and place also seem to have a strong presence throughout Slugger. “I love you like an upstate winter”, sings Cook on”Little Fourth of July, while the antithesis,”Winter takes the life out of me…while I was stuck in New York City”, is sung on Kanyakumari. The closing track, Dibs, Hawaii, is reminiscent of Karen O’s Crush Songs, and is the perfect ending to a perfect debut album.  Two minutes of calling out the pretentious douchebags of Brooklyn (no offense to those who aren’t…or at least think so), never sounded so sweet. Slugger is free here, but I’d suggest throwing in some of that young money for these MVPs - it’s worth it.

Cereal Pairing: The Wheaties with Lou Gehrig on it.p186flqho11tce11t11v56qere2o6


2015-11-30