Blame Cat Power’s Chan Marshall — more timid, honey-throated, guitar-wielding young women are making music than ever before. They’ve all had varying degrees of success, but U.K. trio Peggy Sue doubles its chances by sharing vocal duties between the well-matched Katy Young and Rosa Slade. Don’t expect the lilting harmonies to flesh out the duo’s sound, though. Stripped down to coffee-shop simplicity and accented with bare, atmospheric percussion by Olly Joyce, Fossils and Other Phantoms is as haunting as it is beautiful.
The sparseness works, placing focus squarely on the melodic lyrics and turning rare crescendos into explosive album touchstones. Peggy Sue’s real strength comes from keeping things quiet, not boring. From subtle string arrangements to hypnotic finger plucking, the album has a ramshackle nostalgia, as though someone attempted an indie-rock retrofit of the Edith Piaf esthetic. Still, the easiest comparison is to Cat Power. Luckily, Peggy Sue makes the most of the minutia and delivers a lovely if low-key triumph.
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