Bad Bad Hats mine their emotions for brief blasts of pop bliss
The 10 songs on Psychic Reader, the debut album by Minneapolis band Bad Bad Hats, breeze by in 33 minutes, but every second is full of blissful pop sunshine. The lyrics may be desolate, but Kerry Alexander, the group’s guitarist, singer and main songwriter, has a voice full of e ffervescent melancholy. Although she sings about the lack of communication that makes relationships di fficult, she clearly sees the light at the end of even the darkest tunnel.
“I’m sorry to say, the songs are mostly autobiographical,” says Alexander. “I write love songs, even when I’m out of love. So much doubt and fear goes into every relationship. ‘Do you love me as much as I love you?’ Everyone wants the emotional upper hand, so there’s a lot of tiptoeing around the way you feel. Even though I write about loneliness and insecurity, the music is joyful. When I listen to music, it’s beautiful to hear a song that speaks to the moment I’m living in, even if it’s a sad song. That’s the kind of music I love and the kind of music I write.”
The chiming arpeggios and golden power chords of Alexander’s guitar are ably supported by the inventive rhythms of drummer Chris Hoge and bassist Noah Boswell. The album has a brilliant pop sheen, which the band attributes to producer Brett Bullion.
“Brett added the e ffects that give the songs a sense of space,” says Hoge. “He pushed us to add some stranger sounds that helped fl esh out the songs. He took the e ffects from the demos Kerry and I made— like the backward guitar that leads into the chorus of ‘Midway’—and dropped them into the mix.”
Alexander agrees: “I was nervous before recording. I didn’t want studio tinkering to overshadow the songs, but Brett helped us enhance what was already there.”
—j. poet
