Pure Beauty

What is pure beauty? On their new 5-song EP., the Naysayer explores this and other timeless questions. A band that escaped easy genre classification on last year's "Heaven, Hell, or Houston" and the debut "Deathwhisker," the Naysayer here flirts brazenly with country. But this is not the country of a rock band stripping down to sound "homegrown." Production is slicker than in the past, resulting in a real Nashville-in-the-seventies sound. Instrumentation is straight-up country, with Matt Sutton (Malarkies, k.) on pedal steel and Jake Danziger on violin. Lead singer Anna Padgett is also joined not only by her traditional Naysayer cohort Cynthia Nelson (Retsin, Ruby Falls, the Sophie Drinker) on drums and vocals, but also by Karla Schickele (k., Ida, Beekeeper), and multi-instrumental wonderman Miggy Littleton (Ida, k., Blood on the Wall) on vocals, guitar, and bass. But despite these departures from previous recordings, and despite its playfully blatant country sound, "Pure Beauty" is pure Naysayer, and steers clear of facile formula. The Naysayer's beauty is unique. The Naysayer's beauty is pure.