Gregory And The Hawk - Moenie And Kitchi

by Simon T Diplock

Meredith Godreau grows up. No birds or boys necessary.

"Opener ‘Oats We Sow’ is made of fragile guitar lines and soft, breathy vocals, but, like everything here, feels more developed than anything Meredith Godreau has put her name (or Gregorys) to before."

It’s easy to get Gregory And The Hawk all wrong. And not just because there are no Gregorys and no hawks here, only 26-year-old New Yorker Meredith Godreau and her solo project’s second full-length. No, the biggest mistake to be made is assuming that Godreau is yet another twee scenester, indie mope or feeble female. Ok she may have seemed a little too cute on last year’s ‘In Your Dreams’ album, and let’s face it she’s never going to be a real rock chick, but in mere months her music has grown up miles.

The difference doesn’t take long to become clear either. Opener ‘Oats We Sow’ is made of fragile guitar lines and soft, breathy vocals, but feels more developed than anything Godreau has put her name (or Gregorys) to before. ‘August Moon’ follows suit- beautifully sparse but with all the power necessary to set up home in your brain, ‘Wild West’ borrows just a spot of post-rock power to keep things interesting, and ‘Ghost’ incorporates surges of brass, bubbling electronics and percussion to really impress.

There is still room for improvements. Gregory And The Hawk’s army of online fans will no doubt disagree but ‘Super Legend’ stays the wrong side of light and anonymous, ‘Harmless’ is exactly that, and ‘Voice Like A Bell’ is brilliant but begs for a little Kinsella-esque electricity to become truly amazing. Then again, if the step up in quality from her last record to here is anything to go by then Godreau probably has all those points covered in the demos for her next record already.

It’s not the greatest thing you’ll hear all year but ‘Moenie And Kitchi’ delivers one girl’s special, individual kind of charm with smarts and style and skill. And it should easily impress enough that no-one will be explaining the lack of birds and boys in the band next time out too.

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