SIRSY – Coming Into Frame

Funzalo 2013

SIRSY – Coming Into Frame

The Albany band tap the electro-pop seam but, fortunately, don’t keep their emotions in check.

The only unsigned band in the USA to have appeared in Soundscan’s Top 10 before they inked a deal with Funzalo Records, the duo of Melanie Krahmer and Rich Libutti can hardly escape the WHITE STRIPES comparisons. That is, unless and until you’ve heard them, because their music lacks the DIY gene and is much richer in scope and melody, so the pair’s thankful nod to Grammy-winning producers Paul Kolderie and Sean Slade signals their modesty. It doesn’t extends to the songs on “Coming Into Frame”, though, and when Melanie’s voice counts her blessings in “Brave And Kind”, the soul gets warmed and then shaken with an organ-augmented, soaring chorus.

Yet in order to get to such delicate matters, one has to cut through the glossy surface of “Cannonball” shot at the edges with Libutti’s bluesy riff and Krahmer’s effervescent beat, her vocals getting hotter as the album’s amplitude grows. Thus, the twilight-kissed “Gold” lets out a tremulous twang, and if there’s a vintage, vaudeville element to “Lot Of Love” or “Lionheart”, their rocking swing is packed so arrestingly that the sway feels irresistible. The other side of effusiveness reveals itself in the string quartet wrapping of “The Cost Of You”, which signs the album off in an aching manner that’s amounts to seductive call back into the titular cage – quite a welcoming space.

****1/2

April 11, 2013