The Shapes We Make in Bloomington, MN

Even more direct and energetic than 2005's
Ex Hex
,
Mary Timony
shines on her
Kill Rock Stars
debut,
The Shapes We Make
.
"Sharpshooter"
and
"Killed by the Telephone"
kick off the album with the kind of spiky, smart
rock
some
Timony
fans have been longing for since
The Dirt of Luck
days;
"Curious Mind"
's chugging guitars and whip-smart twists and turns nod to
the Who
"Pause/Off"
takes this sound in an expansive, politically minded direction, and features some especially withering lyrics ("You're a hot-shot?/Yeah, I know you're not/Hanging out in the CVS parking lot"). But while
boasts an extra dose of
touches on all the sounds she developed with
Helium
and on her own.
"Rockman"
's intricate, languid guitars and chiming keyboards are quintessential
, as is
"Summer's Fawn,"
which, with its awkwardly beautiful melody and rhythms, could fit just as easily on the
Pirate Prude
EP as it does here. But, even though songs like
"Each Day"
recall her earlier work (in this case, the brooding, keyboard-based sound of
Mountains
The Golden Dove
), overall
feels fresh, particularly on
"New Song,"
which closes the album with a collage of bubbly
new wave
pop
and guitar heroics. The rest of
the Mary Timony Band
(
Medications
'
Devin Ocampo
Chad Molter
on drums and bass, respectively) follows
with an instinctive ebb and flow, and the results are some of her most focused, exciting work in years. ~ Heather Phares