Waxahatchee

Katie Crutchfield has a way of delivering a line so casually that it takes a half-dozen listens to fully realise how devastating it is the work of a songwriter skilled enough to make introspection seem not self-centered, but generous - 8.4 Pitchfork

The nakedness of Crutchfields music is the source of both its confidence and its vulnerability - 8.0 Spin

Rightly one of the most talked about artists at SXSW, for a tough but tender take on the singer-songwriter - NME

Waxahatchee has announced the UK release of her already acclaimed album Cerulean Salt on 1 July 2013, via Wichita.

Listen to the sublimely disheveled Brother Bryan - Click Here

2013 has already been a whirlwind of a year for the Alabama-born Katie Crutchfield, after the release of her second album under the moniker Waxahatchee last month in the US (on venerable punk label Don Giovanni) was met with immediate critical acclaim, earning Best New Music and an 8.4 album score from Pitchfork as well as the SPIN Essentials tag and continued support from NPR, among many others. This was followed by a very enthusiastically received string of shows at SXSW where she was singled out as one of the festivals highlights by both local and international press, resulting in Wichita picking up the record for a worldwide release (excluding North America) this summer.

Katie Crutchfield is a natural at writing confessional pop songs. Since picking up the guitar as a teenager she has spent the better part of her young adult life travelling the country to play basement shows for feminist punks with bands like P.S. Eliot, Bad Banana and The Ackleys, all of which she sang for. Crutchfield and her twin sister Allison started these bands in high school, inspired by touring bands that would pass through Alabama, as well as a local community-run show space called Cave 9 where they both volunteered. The sisters were best known as P.S. Eliot, a band that developed a cultish underground following until disbanding in 2011. Deciding to go it alone, Crutchfield became Waxahatchee and released her debut album American Weekend in 2012 and its lo-fi acoustic guitar-pop songs made for one of the years best unsung records.

With Cerulean Salt, Crutchfield turns it up a notch and plugs in the guitar as well as adding a few band mates.

A more accomplished and polished record, but no less intimate and affecting, the strength of Cerulean Salt lies in the simplicity and purity of its songs; a quality that ties them to millennial pop-punk, with melodies that immediately penetrate alongside Crutchfields frank vocal, delivering devastating, straight-from-the-heart lyrics backed by lacerating guitars and slouchy basslines. Sounding like an instant classic from the get go, its songwriting recalls the rawness of early Cat Power, the introspective lyrics of Rilo Kiley and the indie fuzz of The Breeders.Cerulean Salt was recorded with assistance from Crutchfields roommates: her drummer Keith Spencer and bassist Sam Cook-Parrot, as well as her sister Allison Crutchfield (of Swearin) and Kyle Gilbride (of Swearin, Big Soda).Waxahatchees live show currently consists of a bassist and drummer, amping up tracks from her lof-fi debut album American Weekend into full-band affairs.