Laura Kerry
“I want peace / I had a gig last night, I want sleep.”
These are the straightforward desires of Skinny Blonde in the opener, “Paige’s Song,” from their new EP. All of Precious Cargo unfolds in a similarly direct manner, from “Squatter’s Rights,” which chronicles living for free in a dingy home littered with needles, to “Annie’s Song,” a true story about a crush on a girl with a partying habit.
Skinny Blonde categorizes itself as “indie,” sometimes “indie rock/pop,” and the genre simplicity recalls decades past (about a decade and a half to two decades, to be specific), a time reflected in their music. Lead singer Mike Turzilli’s dispassionate pep, as oxymoronic as that is, recalls the lighter side of Dinosaur Jr., and it occasionally dips into a yarl on “Wrong Way,” or a gentler kind of innocence on the bonus, “Flavor Ice Pops,” reminiscent of Yo La Tengo in their quieter moments. Throughout Precious Cargo, Skinny Blond is so charmingly earnest that they cut straight through the territory of goofball sincerity and, somehow, end up on the other side at cool.