La Sera - Sees The Light

Cassie looks 12, but she's really like, 27.

La Sera is Katy Goodman (of Vivian Girls) plus a drummer and a guitarist. Katy is known for her bass-playing days in Vivian Girls alongside killer songstress/babe Cassie Ramone (I saw Cassie perform in the flesh a few months ago at a Babies show, it was pretty much like waking up to a breakfast in bed with all your favorite foods). I don't think her last name is actually Ramone, though I might be wrong. If it's not really Ramone, I'm not really all that mad about it... I just sort of wish I had thought of it first. In other news, Sees The Light is actually a surprisingly infectious album, especially in comparison to their first full-length, self-titled release. Snooze.

Sees The Light is mind-numbingly simple in the most frustrating of ways. It's frustrating because I wish I could write songs that are based off a three-chord progression that don't sound like a chorus being repeated over and over (trust me, I do have songs like that, and they are all pretty boring and not in the cool, swanky, sultry, slow-jam sort of way). All of the tracks on Sees The Light (all ten of them) virtually sound the same, give or a take a few 'doo-doo-doos' and a couple 'oooh-ooooh-oooohs.' At least that's how it feels to me when I listen to it, but that might just be because I've played it so many times continuously.

I heard she's crazy.

That's not to say that there is no variation from song to song whatsoever, it's just that the transitions are all pretty darn subtle. It could be Katy's singing style – she rarely deviates from the confines of her vocal boundaries – or it could be the simple, upbeat, jangley melodies that seem to be looped through every track. Regardless of its simplicity, the album works. I can just see Katy laying in a bed of flower pedals and dandilions with her little kitty, frantically uploading Instagram photos to her various social media sites while singing "I'm Alone" and batting her lashes all the while.

"I'm Alone" is one of the most difficult songs to forget on Sees The Light, and that could be because you may have heard a song that sounds just like it from a different "musician." I put the word musician in quotes because I hate the "I'm Awkward and Quirky" "Zooey Deschanel" more than all of the world's evils combine (and because you can't see the fervor with which I am air-quoting all that is associated with "Zooey Deschanel"). No but really, I think she's a robot.

 

Listen to the theme song for her dumb show about being that awkward girl everyone loves to hate because she's just so cute and silly! And tell me they don't sound pretty similar, except Zooey is Satan reincarnate.

Also...how over-produced does her "voice" sound? gag. If that face doesn't make you cringe, then you might want to seek professional help. *Spoiler Alert* A life-size blow-up Zooey Deschanel doll is #1 on my Christmas list for 2012, I know you've all been working on what to get me, so if you team up and one of you gets the Zooey doll, the other can search the black market for the vintage Chinese water torture chamber used by the great Houdini. Don't ask questions, just do it.

IN CONCLUSION, Sees The Light is a pretty mellow, low-key album that gets better the more you listen to it. It's hard to appreciate its greatness the first time through, in fact, you might decide it's too boring for your taste on the first go-around, but I can assure you that with just the right amount of time and thoughtful consideration, you'll be humming her hooks in no time. Here's "It's Over Now." Enjoy, you sappy bastard.