Written by Alec Calvillo
Harmonizing vocals , reverbed guitars, catchy lyrics and psychedelic vibes is what you get when you listen to Quilt’s third album, “Plaza.”
Quilt is a four-piece band from Boston, Massachusetts. The duo, lead singer/guitarist Anna Fox Rochinski and fellow vocalist/guitarist Shane Butler, met at School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston in late 2008. They later added bassist/vocalist Keven Lareau, and drummer/ vocalist John Andrews.
Rochinski’s lovely vocals and cute physique leave your ears and eyes amazed with her talent and charm. Butler’s vocals and guitar playing bring another special talent to the group. Butler and Rochinski could easily be the frontman of any other band, but together they make a good team.
The band’s sound is like they could have taken a time machine from the late 1960s when Psychedelic pop was starting to get popular. Today they would be classified as a psych indie pop band.
“Plaza” was released Feb. 26 on the record label Mexican Summer, which is the label Quilt released their two previous albums on.
The cover of the album looks basic with a chair in the middle of an empty room in what looks like the city of Los Angeles. The pastel looking colors don’t help the appeal of the cover. It could have been better, but essentially describes the title of the album.
I thought that this album was going to be interesting and hard to top considering all of the hits from their previous album, “Held In Splendor,” but I was wrong. This album definitely is close to their last album if not better.
My favorite track off the bat is “O’Connor’s Barn.” The guitar riff in the beginning of the song was so catchy that it opened my ears up to the rest of the song. After it was over, I could still hear that little melody in my head. As a guitar player I was envious of the simplistic yet awesome riff.
The most underrated song in this album has to be “Padova.” The sound of notes being slid down the neck of the guitar, the soft vocals, light drums and even a harp all complement each other for a song that makes you feel kind of sad.
The song even has a deeper meaning than just “maybe we will meet in Padova.” Butler mentioned in an interview with NPR Music that he wrote the song not long after his mother died.
Quilt couldn’t have picked better tracks to be singles. “Roller” and “Eliot St.” both capture the spirit and good qualities of “Plaza.”
“Eliot St.” didn’t grab my attention as much as some of the other tracks, but I could see how it ended up being a single. The acoustic guitar sounded really simple, but the little sounds in the background like violin along with guitar with tremolo appearing every now and then showed the detail and effort.
When I first listened to “Roller,” I only listened to it twice and I found myself singing the lyrics to the chorus later on in the day without even thinking about the song. “Roller” is easily the catchiest song on the album.
Another honorable mention is the track “Hissing My Plea.” My favorite part from this track is when they include random pauses throughout the song.
The only thing bad about the album is that I wished it could have been longer than 10 tracks. All of the songs seem like they were well thought of and weren’t rushed just to fill the album with more songs.
Some could say the music is too boring but with such a chill vibe, but “Plaza” will become your soundtrack for the spring of 2016. It makes a great road trip album because of how chill and poppy it is. It is an absolute ear pleaser.
