How does a broken heart actually sound? We all think we know that, but the folk Bitch Trio explains it again very well. “Mary’s Playing the Harp” is a one take that ends her debut now would be a good time so emotionally that you immediately notice the last four lovesickness: three voices, a guitar, composed through the Australian outback during a tour. This is a precisely fitting exit from an album that comes across feelings quite often.
Recommendations of the editorial team
The Heide Peverelle, Jeanie Pilkington and Gracie Sinclair from Melbourne got to know each other at school and found a common musical practice that does not take folk the seriousness, but gives him fresh air. This applies musically: small feedback loops and noise in the background are just as much a place as guitar picking and bitter sweetness, three-part vocal harmonies.
But this applies above all to their lyrics: marginal notes, sometimes knitted around Claims (“Hotel TV”), sometimes laid out as a guide into disturbing stories (“That’s all she’s wrote”). What unites all songs: an intensity that you know less from the current Americana company, but from veterans like Gillian Welch or Tift Merritt.
This review was first published in the MusikExpress 08/2025.