Tear Ducks - Tear Ducks

Tear Ducks

​Tear Ducks
self-released; 2018

​3.9 out of 5

By Rebecca Rothschild

From one of my favorite burgeoning music scenes, Nashville, Tennessee, comes Tear Ducks with their self-titled album Tear Ducks. This is a short one, and that's a bit unfortunate because I loved so much of what I heard. They bestowed me with three songs that do an excellent job of exhibiting their capabilities. They have a great indie rock sound that is engineered with vintage fuzz and I was into it.

First song is "In My Head" and is a delightful opening indie rock number with all the appeal of any well built pop song. It's surfy and lighthearted with accessible lyrics. This is a great opener that laid out pretty clearly what their point of view sounds like. I like the catchy riff but in the instance of this song, the lyrics are what is king. I like the tone and performance style of the vocals, however the engineering of the lyrics had me on the fence. Over time it grew on me. It's definitely indie and appropriate. I honestly can't put my finger on it; maybe just one tweak one way or another. Other than that, I am all in, I like where this is going.

"Keys In The Front Door" pops a chill pill and slows down the vibe quite a bit. It's a little forlorn and bittersweet. It's innocent sounding but again there are great lyrics here dishing out lessons learned. There's lot of layers on this one as well that make it more than just a quiet song for shoe gazing. In fact, despite its slow nature, I definitely had my head swaying to this one. There's a slow moving groove here that I got into.

The final track is "Slumber" and it takes an interesting tone. It's a little more rough around the edges. The layers are not as seamless. They're a bit more chunky. The tone is somewhere between nostalgic and somber. This song illustrated what a knack these guys have for nailing that bittersweet tone that can be translated into so many things depending on the listener or situation. I like this aspect of their style. It has situational range.

This album had a clearly designed aesthetic, it was focused and while meant to muddy things up a bit, it was a clean finish. Again, I dunno why the vocal treatment has me pondering. I think it's because those lovely vocals were placed a little too far back. I get the sense that for me personally I wanted to feel something more intimate. This EP was done entirely head to toe at The Hilson Studio in Nashville. I think the work done there did these songs a lot of justice. Again that coating of fuzz and reverb was very much on point and helped create a signature sound for the group.

​All I can say is I hope this groups keeps going! I genuinely enjoyed this lovely little sample but this is a snack; I need a full meal. I can't wait for more.

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