Becca Stevens & Attacca Quartet (2022)

Stevens’ promo copy says she blends “pop, jazz, indie rock, and Appalachian folk music,” in her solo guitar / vocal work. That’s pretty accurate but doesn’t do a great job of describing the sound. This is a colab with the Attacca that adds string quartet arrangements to a number of her existing songs, a couple of new ones, and an out of the blue Radiohead cover that’s better than you might think.

The Attacca Quartet (o_O) do great work with repertoire as well as new ideas. Violist Nathan Schram is married to Stevens so it’s a natural enough collaboration.

Stevens blends well into the strings and emphasizes the jazz phrasing on a lot of the vocals, which makes this a pretty forward-facing project that really does blend all of her musical interests nicely.

Tracks I Liked

For You The Night Is Still - leans into the Appalachian part of the equation with great results, still has a lovely fractal string arrangement.

45 Bucks - a nasty little lyric and an urgent, demanding arrangement

Tillery - a much calmer tune, also very effective