My Unborn Children

Foolish

Independent Release

originally published December 26, 2007

Probably the most accurate thing one can say about Foolish is that it sounds like what it is: a self-released, home-recorded CD-R by a singer-accordionist. (The singer-accordionist in question here is Talia Bromstad, a member of local band the Ice Cream Socialists.) The vocals are up-front, largely untreated and shakily if winningly harmonized. The fakey-fakey drums are way back in the mix so their fakeness is largely unobjectionable, and there tends to be a lot of reverb. There are many cheap-sounding keyboards, and there is no bass. Nothing sounds polished, but nothing sounds really rough, either; just plain. It would sound good played at low volume in an older car after something small and pretty, like Electrolene. It would sound bad played loudly around a bunch of intense, bearded dudes who just finished listening to Deerhoof. Foolish seems to demand a certain restraint, but if you're relaxed and in the mood for little love songs, it's just right.

Even "Ramona," a song about drowning a baby, doesn't break the mood. It's not creepy in its juxtaposition of cheery music and grotesquerie, but a sincere expression of loss. The singer really is sad about the baby that she drowned, in the same manner that you'd reminisce about a lost love. That dislocation is so in character that it works as a wistful pop song, contextualizing its horrors as banal to the person expressing them. On a seemingly predictable album, it suggests that different ways of listening might be rewarded.

Michael Barthel

My Unborn Children is playing at a local DIY venue on Sunday, Jan. 6.