Hearing harmonies is like putting on your favorite sweater. Once you’ve been struck by the magic, they’re hard to shake off and you just want to wrap them around you and cover yourself all over.
Such is my affection for Spinn, the New Jersey based trio that has released a new EP this week called “.” When Spinn released the single of the same name back in October, they caught our attention with a well-crafted pitch about their new outlook on country music. “City Country” is a rollicking manifesto powered by electric guitars and funny, tongue-in-cheek bravado from a trio of women exorcising their pent-up angst from toiling somewhere in the swamps (and clubs) of Jersey: “I’ll rock these cowboy boots from Jersey all the way to Tennessee/These dusty roads and big bad trucks, they don’t scare me/I’m all fired up, ready and able to drink you ‘whiskey boys’ right under the tale/Something new allow us to introduce ‘City Country””
It’s not as if the Northeast is Siberia and doesn’t like country music or never had a country scene. Back in the olden days of the last century, Manhattan once had a burgeoning country community in the years following “Urban Cowboy.” But “City Country” captures Spinn’s clever writing and popcraft and re-introduces the trio of self-starters that released its first record six years ago and often can be found playing at Hill Country in Brooklyn, NY.
If “City Country” the song is musically more evolutionary than revolutionary, the new EP celebrates are the fruits of labor for a group that has been making music since meeting in college at Monmouth University in New Jersey. Featuring twins Cheryl Lynn and Stephanie Spinner and singer Megan Battaglia, Spinn writes gorgeous melodies and has instincts for arrangements, their best songs like “Regret On The Rocks” and “Reckless” that builds on the lessons learned from great vocal groups in generations past from the Beatles to the Bangles.
In “Summertime,” the gifts of the Spinner sisters and Battaglia are in full display. Where “City Country” is fun, direct and brash and right in your face, the wistful ballad is anchored by the lead-in acoustic guitars and the electric brushstrokes of Steve DeSteno whose longing accents help paint the smitteness of this summer love song. Spinn allows this to patiently develop and unfold in deference perhaps to their own emerging self-recognition of the singers’ considerable gifts.
In an inventive approach where each woman takes a verse and chorus, the subtle nuances of their voices blend together as one and the sound of Spinn becomes fully realized. Where you’d expect a conventional guitar solo, they build a beautiful bridge referencing hearing a Bruce Springsteen song, climaxing with two single lines “We’re ‘Oh Thunder Road’ on the radio/Turn it up loud and dance it slow…”
The infectious “Last Call” rips and roars, this straight ahead guitar charge of a bar room drama that’s more like a bar room blitz. While on first blush it might be easy to dismiss this as just another drink-along anthem, the Spinner sisters have the great gift of situational writing, setting the scene with detailed imagery and descriptive narrative. They turn into reporters on the scene with great one-liners that build suspense while thrusting themselves on a long night’s journey into day where last call is a long way from dawn.
The EP closes with “Diana.” I think I might have heard a little Rolling Stones “Heartbreaker” in “City Country” and “Diana” bustles along, borrowing its underlying melody from the Rolling Stones “Sympathy From The Devil.” Named for the character of Wonder Woman, the song replays Spinn’s approach from “Summertime” in how they share and alternate verses. This build benefits from the great soulful singing of Megan Battaglia as she belts it out. “I am Wonder Woman/I With a heart of Amazonium I’ll get up fine without your hand.”
It’s one chorus that can’t repeat enough as I find myself increasing the volume as Battaglia summons from within, a woman empowered and a band on the verge. And like with “Summertime,” I am imagining it as a song I’m hearing on the car radio… not once, but again and again.
