We get a lot of records sent to us here at The A.V. Club. Fortunately, we end up liking some of them. In Playlisted, we share our latest recommendations.
Album: Sees The Light by La Sera (out now on Hardly Art)
Press play if you like: Dum Dum Girls, Best Coast, Frankie Rose, or any other act (like La Sera) that’s shared members with Vivian Girls.
Some background: In another life, “Kickball” Katy Goodman is the bassist of Brooklyn’s Vivian Girls, but she caught restless-demo syndrome in 2009 and began recording her own swoony noise-pop with the help of Seattle-based producer Brady Hall and a rotating cast of instrumentally inclined friends. La Sera’s self-titled debut dropped early last year and revealed a canny ear for the ethereal, plus a deep appreciation for the Brill Building pop of the ’50s and ’60s. Both wintry and warming, Goodman’s solo songs initially strayed from her punk roots, but her second album, Sees The Light, brings the fuzz back into the fold along with smatterings of grunge, surf-rock, and blues. The latter comes mostly in the lyrics—with song titles like “Love That’s Gone” and “I’m Alone,” it's pretty clear that La Sera's latest follows a rough breakup.
Try this: “Please Be My Third Eye” seems to be more about recovery than regret, as Goodman confides to someone close to her, “When you sit beside me, I can see much further.” She says this in a breathy coo, of course, which functions as a cooling salve to the track itself, a balmy garage grinder whose rapid drum rolls and pummeling bassline would otherwise drive the entire thing off of the rails.