The Roches - "The Roches" (1979)

The Roches are a band I had never heard of until tonight. Although the front cover did not appear particularly promising, I definitely liked this record. It is basically an acoustic folk album, with a strong emphasis on the harmonies of Maggie, Terry, and Suzzy Roche. When I heard the first ten or fifteen seconds of the opening track "We," with three high-pitched voices singing "We are Maggie and Terre and Suzzy," I cringed a bit, thinking I had stumbled across some sort of drugged-out children's album. But although very twee (not that that term existed in 1979), the song is actually a tongue-in-cheek introduction to the group, featuring dissonant harmonies and odd, but clever lyrics ("We don't give out our ages/And we don't give out our phone numbers/Sometimes our voices give out/but not our ages and our phone numbers").

Throughout the record, the Roches play precious, almost child-like music that nonetheless has a definite arty bent (the album is produced by Robert Fripp of prog-rock giant King Crimson and features his electric guitar as well as King Crimson staple Tony Levin on bass). Although the music is very sparse, the harmonies and melodies are weird enough to keep things interesting, and overall, the album is not quite like anything else I have ever heard. My main criticism is that the songs tend to run for four or five minutes in length, which feels a bit long for what are fairly simplistic (at least texturally simplistic) songs. But setting that aside, The Roches is definitely a very good album and another pleasant surprise in my collection.