It's impossible to imagine Vivian Girls without "Kickball" Katy Goodman. Her high harmonies take a number of the songs from sloppily catchy to pop-friendly. Her bass playing often provides the most hummable melodies. At shows, while frontwoman Cassie Ramone plants herself at stage right, practicing strangulation on the neck of her guitar and testing the limits of her reverb pedals, Goodman can be found stage left, stepping to the mic for those aforementioned harmonies, jumping up and down, and smiling broadly. As gratifying as all of that sounds, Goodman had the understandable impulse to create things on her own: Last year found her taking the reins on a self-titled album as La Sera with mixed results. It was a pretty album, one that felt speckled with glitter, and it was faithful to the girl-group bliss for which her main group is known, but at times it felt a little too faithful-- catchy but lacking a distinct identity, airy and pleasant almost to the point of superfluousness.
These problems have been more than corrected on on her sophomore La Sera collection, Sees the Light. Take "Break My Heart" and lead single "Please Be My Third Eye". Delivered at warp speed and full volume, both songs are punchy punk numbers that sound like well-produced takes on Goodman's short-lived All Saints Day project. But while those older songs clearly invited comparisons to the buzzsaws-cutting-through-corroded-metal sound of Vivian Girls and plenty of bands that came in their wake (particularly early Dum Dum Girls), these new tunes benefit from how Goodman separates herself from the pack. Her smooth alto-- pushed refreshingly high in the mix-- is a perfect fit for some of the record's other tracks. Here, the elegant, almost ethereal singing contrasts with the fuzzy distortion in a way that's infectious and unique. There are other departures as well: "Drive On" adopts a spaghetti-western guitar line that plays out dramatically, and "How Far We Come Now" is measured and heavy-- both sonically and emotionally-- sounding like a grunge band covering Carly Simon.
As a result of Goodman's knack for classic pop melody and structure, even the songs that bear a resemblance to La Sera are an improvement. They burst with personality and feeling: Closer "Don't Stay" carries a particularly lonely drift, while the blooming arrangements and Shop Assistants-indebted feel of "I'm Alone" nestles closely to the same C86 and twee comparisons her Vivian Girls bandmate so vehemently rejects. Songs like "Love That's Gone" and "It's Over Now" coast gorgeously with an acrimonious undercurrent. These ballads find Goodman dismissing herself from a relationship in a way that's heartbreakingly apologetic, the musical equivalent of sending a Dear John letter attached to a floral arrangement.
At a lean half-hour, there's no room for filler here. Every song on Sees the Light is exquisitely crafted and overflowing with personality. It's a record so enjoyable and expertly sequenced that it demands repeat listens before it's even over. But most importantly, it shows Katy Goodman can translate what she brings to Vivian Girls into top-shelf songwriting.
