Tracy Shedd & One AM Radio
Tracy Shedd & One AM Radio
Translusence
The Split EP. A beautiful staple in our colorful history of rock and roll music. You get a chance to hear some songs by a band you like and maybe discover some new music by proximity. That is, until the advent of compact disc. How people justify releasing ten-minute CDs is completely beyond me. I can settle for 20 minutes, because by the time you reach 30, you can release it as a full-length, but ten?!?!
That aside, Tracy Shedd and The One AM Radio have joined forced to bring you a towering release, nearly 12 minutes in length. Now, I have endless, boundless, ceaseless respect for songwriting. Especially good songwriting and especially when good songwriting and sad bastard music combine into a glorious speedball of melancholy nostalgia. And yes! Here it is.
Tracy Shedd is a joy to listen to. Her songs have honestly sweet hooks. The lyrics on opener “Calm Sea” eventually reach such an unique point, where sentimentality just becomes washed out completely, where she just refers to cities and boats with this sense of beautiful plainness. “Red Pillow,” while not as lyrically strong, is just as musically powerful. With such genuinely strong songwriting, it’s painful to consider how short the release is.
The One AM Radio, while not as delicately crafted, is more considerately orchestrated. Where Shedd’s band is essentially a traditional rock setup, One AM Radio implements drum machines and violins to get what is essentially the same sound with a different tonal palette. In tune with the first half of the EP, One AM Radio is basically a thematic reiteration of love lost that seems to pervade 95 percent of all songwriting. You can’t hold it against them.
There’s nothing groundbreaking here. CD-EPs are outdated. These songs are certainly pleasurable. You get the picture.
Tracy Shedd: http://www.tracyshedd.com
