“True Love Kills the Fairy Tale” by The Casket Girls

The Casket Girls
True Love Kills the Fairy Tale
[Graveface Records]

Each band has its own way of writing an album. With Savannah, GA trio The Casket Girls and their sophomore LP True Love Kills the Fairy Tale, Ryan Graveface “dropped off a shit ton of songs” and later found sisters Elsa Greene “sobbing and reciting poetry” and Phaedra Greene “staring straight ahead, writing it all down, like, catatonic.”

When it came time to record, the sisters had to relearn the songs because they couldn’t remember any of it. Whatever works right? And fortunately unorthodox methods definitely do, resulting in a solid, cohesive album with 10 songs that make for one hell of a psychedelic-pop experience. Opener “Same Side,” “Holding You Back,” “Secular Love,” and the eponymous track illuminate the album with its catchy and hypnotic hooks that lie on a soft bed of textured synth melodies, fuzzed-out bass, and ethereal vocals. The sisters explore themes of duality, metaphysics, and romance on “Chemical Dizzy,” “Day to Day,” “Ashes and Embers,” and “Stone and Rock.” None are lyrically too complex, but easily accessible and vividly picturesque.

It’s remarkable that the Casket Girls can write a good album from such an odd state. It makes you wonder how they’ll write their third…