Maia Sharp is a tomboy (and many other things)

By Henry Lipput

Maia Sharp is a tomboy.

But Maia Sharp is also a singer; songwriter; guitarist; producer; sax player; percussionist; and player of keyboards, synths, and Mellotron. And she brings all of these talents to bear (along with friends who join her as co-writers, singers, and musicians) on her new album TOMBOY (maiasharp.com/shop).

“Tomboy,” the first track on the album and the leadoff single, is Sharp’s look back on her early years when what she wore to a party was noticed by others: "I'm the only one here not wearing a dress/They're all Audrey and Grace, I'm doing my best." Upon seeing Sharp "mowing the meridian in my t-shirt tan" a neighbor told Sharp's mother "what a nice young man." As she grew up and become more comfortable with herself Sharp has come to terms with all of this: "Tomboy/Not really this or that/Somewhere in the middle of it/Tomboy/Is it still just a phase when she stays a tomboy."

Some of the thoughts in "Tomboy" have filtered down into the love songs that follow especially the idea "not really this or that/somewhere in the middle of it." These songs provide shifting perspectives on love. For instance in the sad but lovely “A Fool In Love Again,” Sharp sings “I’d drop everything if I knew where and when/I could be a fool in love again/I’d be swept away in my reverie/Every word poetry, every note a symphony.”  

And although the equally lovely “Is That What Loves Does” is slotted earlier in the album’s track listing for me it’s very much the next chapter in the album’s story as it relays the dawning of how a new love makes one feel: “Same house, same street, same skin, same town/Same troubled world spinning around/But nothing’s like it was/Is that what loves does?” Sharp’s vocal is hesitant as if she’s afraid to even acknowledge what’s going on.

But in "Any Other Way" it seems Sharp is still not taking a side one way or another: "And if I find all the answers/It won't matter who's to blame/I'll just roll into forever/Knowing I'll never be the same." 

Which leads directly to the last track on the album, a beautiful, heart-felt cover of U2's "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For."

Pop bliss

By Henry Lipput

Consequences + Detours (Big Stir Records) is the poptastic second album from the Michigan-based Crossword Smiles. And you would expect nothing less from Chip Saam (late of the much-loved and missed band The Hangabouts) and Tom Curliss (of Tom Curliss and The 46% -- of which Saam is a member).

The album kicks off with “Counting By Fives” and “Fall All Over Myself” a pair of pop rock gems. You can just imagine how cool it would be to hear these songs done live (as far as I know Crossword Smiles has only performed twice at the release concerts for their debut album and the new one).

Consequences + Detours is full of the kind of pop bliss and clever lyrics that aren’t often found together but this album has them in spades. For example, “Millicent” (one of my favorite songs on the album) is chock full of clever lyrics that are used to fully tell a story: “You bought a ticket on a plane/I’ll see you when you’re back from Spain/We can start a brand new deal/I don’t know where you went/but the money’s all spent/To what extent is it real?” The song also has a terrific arrangement with both mandolin and accordion up front in the mix.

For me, “Millicent” is in many ways a sequel to “Taking You To Leave Me” from The Hangabouts’ Kits & Cats and Saxon Wives album, a song about airports and leaving on a jet plane. 

“Navigator Heart” was co-written with Greg Addington (also of The Hangabouts and now recording as Suburban Hi Fi) and the vocals have an early Posies feel (before they went all grunge). “Looking for you/With my navigator heart/Still got a map/But I don’t know where to start.” Another favorite is “Girls Club” one of the many story songs on Consequences + Detours that recall the lyrical work of Ray Davies and Paul McCartney.

“Kismet” is a gorgeous straight-on love song about infatuation at first kiss and is the kind of pop classic written in the ‘60s. The essence of the song compares the feeling of a new love to the feeling that it was meant to be. “I know you go by something different/but for now I call you Kismet.”