Janky Star

The real appeal of Grace Ives’ stoner-next-door routine is how exquisitely coherent her music is. Yeah, she sings about her overdraft fees (“Loose”) and getting too high to think (“Burn Bridges”), but does so with a scrappy, synth-pop confidence that makes it seem not only endurable, but also kinda heroic—a young woman building a blockbuster from the clothes-strewn sublet she calls home. The mall-rat crush of “Shelly” is instantly appealing (“Oh major major, niner niner/I wanna one-two-three-four-five her”), but the heart of the album is “Lullaby,” which toys with fatalism before deciding, “No, it’s nothing to be sad about/It’s just something I’ve been thinking about.”

On her second album, the New York pop songwriter broadens her sound without sacrificing brevity, fitting grander ideas into the same compact frame. It’s one of the best little pop albums of the year.

Janky Star by Grace Ives album review by Greg Walker. The singer/songwriter's full-length is now available via True Panther/Harvest