Allison Weiss has always been severely underrated (in the UK, at least) for reasons unknown – her vocals are so strong, her songs are so catchy, her lyrics are so heartfelt. This comparable unknown won’t last for long. With her sophomore release, ‘New Love’, Weiss has made a perfect pop record. She has always had the ability to write a catchy hook, a chorus that gets stuck in your head, a song that totally breaks your heart. On this record, though, Weiss does all that and so much more. It’s such a step up from her debut and if this album doesn’t catapult her into the ears of a much wider audience then, well, you can call me an idiot.
Right from opener ‘The Sound’, it’s clear that this album is a step up in terms of production. This album is a big, unashamed pop record and this is so, so far from a bad thing. ‘The Sound’ is an anthemic slow burner which builds slowly yet consistently with choral woah-oh-ohs lying over the top of Weiss’ delicate vocal. It builds to an insane crescendo before dropping out without a defining end and it leaves you feeling sucker punched in the best way.
Weiss will cross genres with this record, for sure. Songs like ‘Who We Are’ with its Springsteen-esque feel and ‘Golden Coast’ (which sounds like it could fit perfectly on a The Killers record) will appeal to fans of that classic American guitar driven sound, whilst the inclusion of a synth on a lot of the songs will appeal to a whole different cross section of fans, building on the popularity of Alvvays and bands of that ilk.
‘Back To Me’ is an amazing song, it opens with this huge riff that will be stuck in your head for days and will be chanted back at Weiss by her ever-increasing audience whenever she plays live. The chorus is so simple and so good and that’s something that this record is great at – taking a simple idea and executing it perfectly and making you wonder why everyone doesn’t just write songs like this.
‘Over You’ is the best song on this record. Containing a beautiful earworm of an acoustic guitar riff a-la The Front Bottoms and lyrics lamenting the effect of technology on twenty-first century relationships, Weiss really manages to connect with the listener. She ends the song singing about the “special place inside of my heart for all the quiet things you said in the dark” and if you’ve ever been in a relationship that has ended, this song will hit you and it will hit you hard.
Weiss does this really well. She writes songs about longing and about heartache that are so relatable and so universal that it feels like she’s singing them just for you. As well as being an incredible collection of pop songs, this record also manages to be a real emotional masterpiece. The closer, ‘The Same’, is the perfect encapsulation of this, with Weiss asking a series of rhetorical questions that link her inextricably with her listener. She manages to form a real connection through her lyrics and it’s hard not to feel shaken by her words, especially when they’re delivered with the honest, emotional intensity that Weiss manages.
Are you looking for a record that you can play again and again? That you can play in front of your friends and your parents? That will emotionally cripple you? Then this album is for you. Thank me later. Oh, probably thank Allison Weiss too, I guess.
CONOR MACKIE