While
Mattiel began essentially as the solo project of powerhouse singer Mattiel Brown, the bluesy garage rock of her first two albums was forged alongside
Jonah Swilley and
Randy Michael (of songwriting/production team InCrowd), who arranged, recorded, produced, mixed, and played several instruments on the releases.
Mattiel's third album,
Georgia Gothic, signifies a change in process and configuration: it's their first release as the duo of Brown and
Swilley. (To underscore this, they are pictured together on the front cover.) With Brown still in charge of lyrics and melody, the two worked closely together, in the same room for the first time, throughout the writing and recording of an album that pays tribute to the contemporary music scene of their base of Atlanta, Georgia. To that end, they incorporate elements like Americana, sleek pop, and even hip-hop -- mostly subtly and without losing a grip on their punk blues-rock anchor. The record was produced by
Swilley before being handed off to Grammy winner
John Congleton (
Angel Olsen,
Sleater-Kinney,
the Regrettes) for finishing touches including mixing. It opens with a dirty dance-rock groove belonging to "Jeff Goldblum," a lust-at-first-sight song that trades Brown's saucy growl for airy, detached, multi-tracked vocals that match the chorus' shinier synth pop. The album soon eases into the blues, however, with the dusty, midtempo "On the Run" ("What I keep on my back weighs a ton and a half/And I'm always on the run"). Its skipping drums and reverb-heavy guitars carry a contrastingly laid-bare vocal line. Fans of
Mattiel's earlier albums will find solace in tracks like ranting closer "How It Ends" and "Wheels Fall Off," which return to the early-
White Stripes territory of the project's rise. Elsewhere, they settle into a relatively more refined, compelling middle ground with catchy, psychedelic-leaning dark rockers like "Blood in the Yolk" and "You Can Have It All," which find Brown evoking
Siouxsie Sioux. While some listeners are bound to mourn the loss of
Mattiel's most retro-minded garage qualities, these latter songs attain a stylistic sweet spot between their most accessible and rebellious material, while still -- refreshingly -- completely defying contemporary pop. ~ Marcy Donelson