Lord knows there’s enough millennial guilt clogging up the arteries of the internet. But Katie Crutchfield, a singer-songwriter from Birmingham, Alabama, is able to channel these now-familiar feelings into an album of alt-rock anthems for those seeking solace in an age of cynicism. Her third LP, Ivy Tripp – a term Crutchfield made up to describe “directionlessness, specifically of the twentysomething, thirtysomething, fortysomething of today” – maintains a sense of sincerity throughout, letting her purge her own thoughts while providing a sanctuary for her listeners. She is unafraid of melodrama (“You’ll deliver a fable I could live / And I’ll throw it off the nearest cliff”) or cloying emotion (“I know that I feel more than you do / I selfishly want you here to stick to”), and the more naked her compositions – with just a Casio, or a solitary guitar, such as on La Loose, Breathless or Blue – the more they lay bare her skill as a songwriter shaking off the shackles of her anxieties.
