Sees the Light

Katy Goodman named her second solo album *Sees the Light* because, when spoken aloud, it could be heard as “seize the light”—another way of declaring her newfound confidence and focus. After a year of growth and transition (following her sublimely dense and hazy self-titled 2011 debut), the Vivian Girls bassist emerges with a second solo record that\'s sharper and more rugged, with songs that both luxuriate in the wrappings of shoegazery and sparkle with clarity. “Love That’s Gone” opens with a languid, girl-group melody, stripped down to Goodman’s dreamy vocal and the barest of percussion and guitar carrying her voice along like a twig in a creek. That gives way to the shimmering, multilayered “Please Be My Third Eye,” a superbly catchy pop tune with a fun chorus and sweet sentiment. These two tracks lay the groundwork for *Sees the Light*, a multitextured collection of songs that range from neon-colored atmospherics to Ramones-tinged pop. The breezy acoustic guitar on “I’m Alone” and the tropical flavor of “Real Boy” are nice touches, and the breathless pop-punk of “Break My Heart” is a real standout. Is it summer yet?

The second LP from La Sera is ten new tracks of peppy break-up pop brimming with defiance and bitter sweetness, recorded with Rob Barbato (The Fall, Darker My Love) in California. Where the first La Sera album was super-dreamy in its layered vocals, Sees The Light is more direct, more aggressive; almost a soundtrack to a lost drive-in movie classic. This is not an album for half-hearted partakers in the heartache scene: just an all-consuming love for punk as pop and pop as punk.

This second, much improved La Sera collection finds Katy Goodman translating what she brings to Vivian Girls into top-shelf songwriting.

Within the first few notes of opener "Love That's Gone"—before a single word is uttered—it's pretty clear that Sees the Light is a breakup record. In fact, Vivian Girls bassist Katy Goodman's second long-player under the La Sera moniker could convey the emotion of eternally gray days even if the vocals were completely stripped away.

'Kickball' Katy Goodman – better known as one third of the surf-punk group Vivian Girls – returns with this second solo album under the La Sera name which continues to bring the softer, sweeter elements of her main band to the forefront. It's simple, both in terms of its concept and in its execution, and puts a relatively carefree, optimistic spin on the well-worn concept of the break-up album.

In 2011, Katy Goodman took a break from her roll as bassist/vocalist and one-third of Brooklyn's Vivian Girls to assert her own singular identity as La Sera.