Allison Weiss

You can’t go wrong with an album cover that features a stack of pancakes! Allison Weiss’s songs are like those pancakes, (s)lightly sweet, warm, (lyrically) yummy, and (emotionally) (ful)filling. This 6-song, indie-pop EP finds Allison in full band mode, singing and playing down-to-earth tunes with no artifice or overt dramatics, just punchy drums, catchy guitars, astute lyrics, and personable vocal delivery.

“I’m Ready” starts it all off with a jaunty, upbeat tempo of strummed guitar and kicky drums that recall “Ciao!” by Lush, followed by additional twangy guitar and Allison sing-talking in a clear, but plaintive tone, as she reveals her intent on the chorus with the line “Just tell me baby, / am I wasting my time?” amid light tinging notes and wordless backing vocals. A sharp drum beat, tambourine shake, and guitar chords fill up “I Don’t Want to be Here”, until a faster pace of flowing piano notes, bass line, cymbal crash, and harmonizing male backing vocals round out the sound as Allison sings “I don’t want to see you / have the time of your life…/ without me.”

“The End” starts in the middle of the EP, sounding like a home recording, with strummed guitar and straight-forward vocals from Allison as she looks back on a relationship where “fact and fiction” were “one confusing blend”, but now she recalls the good parts and considers the guy her friend, but “I don’t mind / calling this the end.” An added shining, rock guitar line gives “The Disappearing Act” a darker feel amid the upbeat tempo of drums and guitar, as Allison sings in a more serious tone, anxiously pushing out her vocals and exclaiming by the end of the song “I’m dying to know / where you go.”

“Daybreak” features low-key, hesitantly-strummed guitar and subdued vocals from Allison where, on certain words, she briefly lifts her voice up to a higher, wistful register as she sings “Slowly my doubts begin to surface. / Tell me all of this is worth it.” Drums roll in, along with cymbal shimmer and a bittersweet, drawn out cello line.