 | |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 | |
 | |
 | |
 | |
 | |
 | |
 | |
 | |
 | |
 | |
 | |
 | |
 | |
 | |
 | |
 | |
The Softies: Holiday in Rhode Island
The Softies are certainly not indie rock's most challenging outfit. But with their swirling guitars, Siren-like harmonies, and plethora of songs about love, Rose Melberg and Jennifer Sbragia are saccharine in the best possible way. When the Softies informed the world that "There's no reason/We can't call it what it is/It's love, it's love," they expressed a conviction that gave them legitimacy. The duo approaches heartfelt obsession with a candidness and a confidence that keeps their songs clear of common pop triviality. So even with new musings such as "Your eyes are like poetry/Your lips are so sugary/You're altogether wonderful to behold," the Softies still manage to be emotional without making their listeners cringe.
A sad corollary to 1995's It's Love, the band's Holiday in Rhode Island retells the beginning of a relationship's end, though it's not a tale of falling out of love. Each song's subject (a sundress or a postcard, for example) is ghostly—a fond but futile digression into recent memories. The Softies deliberately restrain, but cannot stifle, the peppiness that powered It's Love. Their music acknowledges but does not fully resign itself to all-consuming loss and heartbreak, with lyrics such as, "I wish I could draw a line/Through all of 1999/All except that moment in the spring/When I had everything." In this moment of cherished remembrance, despair becomes, paradoxically, both crippling and somehow reversible.
On Holiday in Rhode Island, the Softies approach heartache in a way that neither dismisses nor relies on the well-trodden ways of pop music.This wedding of complex interpretation and simplistic music saves the record. Even in their flirtations with camp, the Softies assert a unique viewpoint each time sappy excess appears inevitable. (K)
—Thomas Kane
All materials © 2000 The Yale Herald, Inc., and its staff.
Got any questions, comments, or advice? Email the online editors at
online@yaleherald.com.
Like to join us?