On its sophomore full-length and Kill Rock Stars debut, San Francisco all-female trio Grass Widow showcases its brand of sophisticated, post-punk-influenced pop. With the band’s shuffling, zigzagging and vaguely surf-y guitars, hip-shaking rhythms and the three members’ voices softly overlapping, it’s easy to trace a line back to seminal X-chromosomal acts such as The Raincoats, Kleenex-LiLiPUT and Talulah Gosh. Still, this isn’t a style-over-substance backwards-gazing rehash; sturdy songwriting sets Past Time apart from the pack.
Opener “Uncertain Memory” trades in the triumphant horns of Grass Widow’s self-titled debut for ominous strings, accenting the song’s final minute before returning a few songs later in “Give Me Shapes.” Later, standout “Submarine” introduces a swelling organ to the already eerie atmosphere, while closer “Tuesday” ends the album with a fantastic coda stripped down to simply voices and drums. These moments successfully ramp up the dynamics, but also wisely err on the side of subtle, as too much added instrumentation could subvert the band’s basically perfect formula. For examples of this, first single “Shadow”, “11 of Diamonds” and “Old Disguise” would all be ideal additions to a moody, late-summer mixtape.
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