Carol Bui, This Is How I Recover

The bio says Mary Timony’s an influence, and that’s fair enough, but what about Cat Power? I wonder whether the publicists left that name off the list because it would have been too easy, too obvious. “Carol gets that all the time,” they must have thought. Named or unnamed, however, the influence of Chan Marshall on this record is hard to ignore, from the lean, angular post-punk riffs and guitar lines to the bluesy weary-girl vocals.

This Is How I Recover is a bar of bitter chocolate for ex-suitors and naysayers, and that is why I’m slowly enjoying a bar of Ghirardelli’s 100% Cocoa as I listen to this record and write this review. I recommend you do the same when you tune in to this collision of clanging, sometimes dissonant guitars. No one could ever accuse Bui of taking the saccharine route with her vocals, and indeed there is something raw and unchecked in her voice on nearly every track, particularly on “The Beauty Myth,” “Hell on Banknotes,” and the title track.

But I like it when Bui hints at vulnerability, like on “Checked For Bruises,” when she sings about “Giv[ing] until my hips are sore.” Ouch. I’d also like to hear more of this on “I Don’t Call Him By Name,” which features a standout but too-short soaring vocal chorus that fades too quickly back into the guitars.