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Album Reviews
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Jennifer Hartswick, Something in the Water
(MACK AVENUE RECORDS/BROTHER MISTER PRODUCTIONS, CD, DIGITAL, VINYL)
A woman I know who does STEM outreach with girls told me that something happens to them when they become teenagers. Keyed up about science and technology as middlegrade students, they often fl ame out in the years following puberty. What cools them o ? She couldn’t say specifi cally but could only speculate about a confl uence of discouraging factors that plague young women as they grow up.
Singer-songwriter and bandleader Jennifer Hartswick touches on this unfortunate phenomenon on her new album, Something in the Water. On burbling centerpiece “By the River,” the Trey Anastasio Band trumpeter describes freespirited, dirty-faced girls skipping stones riverside, fl ying high on swing sets and playing with imaginary friends. They live freely, without self-judgment.
Knowingly, she cries, “Please never let the world extinguish that fi re!”
Hartswick constructs the song like a pep rally with clickety-clack percussion and deep blasts of trombone and trumpet. Here, and throughout her sophomore outing, her soaring voice is a focal point around which her world-class team of instrumentalists make merry. Of the many noteworthy guests, renowned bassist Christian McBride, a frequent presence at the Burlington Discover Jazz Festival, provides thrumming tones on seven of the album’s nine cuts. Cowritten with guitarist Nick Cassarino, the album showcases the long-standing partnership between the two Vermont expats. The songs touch on loss, regret and destructive choices — but also perseverance, contentment and joy. “We wanted to celebrate the human experience,” Hartswick said in a press release.
The album kicks o with the rhythmically complex “Only Time Will Tell.” Light on its toes, it skips along with syncopated start-stops, signaling a bookish bent toward music theory. But it’s also colorful as hell, with Hartswick busting out velveteen scatting about halfway through.
Something in the Water balances bangers such as “By the River” with sweatblotting slow jams such as “Guilty.” The latter is as stripped-down as the album gets: Hartswick’s vocals and McBride’s bass chase each other in a loose parallel groove.
The song’s honest lyrics echo its structural nakedness. “I been drinkin’ / And I shouldn’t come by, I know,” Hartswick sings to a lover. An ode to bad decisions, the song plods through shame and regret.
With theatricality and precision, Hartswick and company weave together infl uences from pop music, neo-R&B, blues, gospel and a dash of acoustic rock. Hartswick is a sensitive but strong-willed protagonist who, despite the fl aws she refl ects upon, endears herself to listeners.
Something in the Water is available at jenniferhartswick.bandcamp.com.
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Robscure, AIR
(SELF-REL EASED, DIGITAL)
Central Vermont rapper Robscure came up under the tutelage of the Boomslang crew (RIP, JL) and has since grown into a force of his own. After a stint in Winooski, he’s currently trying to make it in New York City. Along the way, he has made a name for himself through consistent, carefully curated projects that blend old-school lyricism with adventurous production.
Robscure’s latest o ering, AIR, is the most ambitious tightrope act of his career to date. Why? He balances his tried-andtrue approach with new stylistic risks.
He starts o the EP with two of the best rap songs out of Vermont this year. “Pilot,” featuring Rivan C., is a catchy and clever summertime banger that sets the bar dangerously high. Yet “Echo” is every bit as great, a richly musical future R&B ballad with a knockout performance by vocalist Eva Rawlings.
From there, Robscure goes solo on “S T A T I C,” delivering a personal testimony with real charisma and gravity. The song is far from fl ashy, but it exemplifi es his recent growth as an artist. Robscure’s ear for transforming beats and rhymes into a compelling journey for the listener has matured beyond his years. He’s also forging his own voice into a style that’s much more than the sum of his infl uences. Up next is “Open the Window!,” a celebration of nature in Vermont that veers into outright pop. This would damn near be a misstep without the staccato acrobatics of Hella Fader artist Juni the Wiccan. But his chemistry with Robscure — and their straight-up joy together — makes the song a perfect fi t.
That kind of risk-taking defi nes the whole second half of this short, strong project. “VENT” is an expansive canvas of earnest, conscious rap, with warm crooning and a spoken-word outro. The following cut, “the feng shui,” featuring Fractal Boi, is almost underwhelming at fi rst yet turns out to be a lean, hypnotic journey with some Madlib aesthetics. None of the guest artists here is just phoning in 16 bars; these are all true collaborations from start to fi nish.
Closer “V01D” wraps up the EP on a high note, reprising earlier themes over the course of a long, playfully introspective verse. Dense with recursive wordplay and layered rhyme schemes, Robscure still makes it sound conversational and e ortless.
Like any sensible rap entrepreneur, Robscure is a fully self-contained operation, taking on mixing and mastering duties himself. He delivers his cleanest and lushest work to date, with a huge dynamic range.
AIR is a deceptively breezy album that cements Robscure’s place at the forefront of Vermont’s new wave of hip-hop artists. He’s carved out his own sound, and he’s leveling up with every release. This is an EP with an album’s worth of ideas, a perfect introduction to an artist at the height of his newfound power.
AIR is available on all major streaming platforms.
