Allison Crutchfield - Tourist In This Town (Album Review)
Wednesday, 08 February 2017
Written by Laura Johnson
Photo: Jesse Riggins
Allison Crutchfield is no stranger to the lo-fi indie and punk scenes, having racked up records and miles with P.S. Eliot and Swearin’, as well as touring with Waxahatchee, her twin sister Katie’s project. Despite this rich lineage, ‘Tourist In This Town’ is surprisingly the first full-length solo offering from Crutchfield and for this new chapter she drew inspiration from the closing of others, namely the end of her relationship with long-time partner and collaborator Kyle Gilbride.
‘Tourist In This Town’ is a “breakup record”, but does not limit itself to the confines of what that usually means. There’s much more at play here than a stack of ballads. It is an autobiographical insight into the last few years of Crutchfield’s life and a shining example of a cathartic process building something beautiful from unfortunate foundations.
Opener Broad Daylight, with its a capella introduction, invites you in and you’re Crutchfield’s for the next 32 minutes. You join her in a Parisian hotel room on Sightseeing and you’re on the road with her for Expatriate, the song that gives the LP its name: “I will throw my suitcase down, I’m a tourist in this town.”
Notably, the line follows a defiant statement of self acceptance: “The things you used to hate about me are all heightened now, but I love myself.”
Fuzz-fuelled synths and rousing drums are scattered throughout and add a pop air to proceedings, which would otherwise risk being weighted down by Crutchfield’s candid lyrics. “I keep confusing love and nostalgia,” she admits on I Don’t Ever Wanna Leave California.
Dean’s Room, meanwhile, has a thudding beat and ‘80s synths to complement its sorry subject matter and Crutchfield uses them to paint a more vivid picture: “You crawl around on your belly and you ask for forgiveness, all while maintaining your innocence.” There’s a definite Smiths influence in the air.
Crutchfield knows when to lay it on thick, even if it’s for less than a minute as on punk nugget The Marriage, or with handclaps aplenty on Mile Away. But she also knows when to strip it back. Charlie, for example, finds her, a guitar and sweeping backing vocals taking centre stage for two and half minutes.
“I’m so narcissistic I want you to be obsessed with me,” Crutchfield admits on Sightseeing. It relates to a former object of affection, we know. But with an album of this calibre Crutchfield might just get her wish.
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