Honeyblood
's first album as
Stina Tweeddale
's solo project,
In Plain Sight
finds her reveling in her freedom by focusing and expanding her music. While former drummer
Cat Myers
was on tour with
Mogwai
,
Tweeddale
holed up by herself to write these songs, and her solitary creative process convinced her she needed to record these songs on her own, too. Working with producer
John Congleton
-- who's shown an almost uncanny ability to help artists such as
St. Vincent
Angel Olsen
, and
Priests
shore up their strengths and uncover new dimensions within their music --
sharpens the bigger, heavier sound she introduced on
Babes Never Die
. Boasting a poison apple shine and audacious musical flourishes,
's songs are as appealing as they are dangerous, shifting from spooky to tough to playful to alluring and back again. As on
's previous album,
leads with some of the album's punchiest tracks. Inspired by a woman who haunted her night terrors, "She's a Nightmare" is equally creepy and catchy, evoking the likes of mid-'90s
Throwing Muses
or
Magnapop
with its vivid imagery ("I'm a dormouse/And she's the cat") and barbed hooks. On "The Third Degree,"
uses stiletto-heeled '60s girl group pop to give the brush-off to an ex who might as well be from her nightmares, while glam rock beats and big, buzzy synths hit home her desperate devotion on "Kiss from the Devil." The twists continue as
reveals itself, spanning "The Tarantella"'s torch song gone grunge to the black-hole synth pop of "You're a Trick." On moments like these and "Take the Wheel"'s impending doom, the album feels like a series of cliffhangers from which
narrowly escapes like the final girl from a horror movie. By the time she closes
's world of illusions and nightmares with the deceptively gentle "Harmless," she pulls off the trick of turning
into a more cohesive, more imaginative prospect than ever before. ~ Heather Phares