Smoosh - Free To Stay

If the resurrection of indie girl rock depends on how well young teenagers are at assimilating and reproducing the efforts of Juliana Hatfield and her ilk, then Seattle sisters Asya and Chloe are indie’s last great hope--Smoosh, with fourteen year-old Asya on keyboard/ vocals and Chloe on drums, released their first album two years ago. It was sweetly obnoxious and halfway unlistenable, but their second effort, Free to Stay, is a marginal classic.

This is the band that Quasi is too old to be. A lot of indie musicians try to hide their age behind bad musicianship, but sounding like you have only been playing your instrument for six months doesn’t freeze you in teenage time. It just makes you suck. Chloe is not much of a drummer, but Asya is a fiend on the keyboard, with well-trained fingers spazzing out just as uncontrollably as the pelvis of Elvis. And her melodies take some genuinely odd twists and turns, without straying from the joyful pastures of a sha-la-la Shangri-La.

The lyrical concerns are well expressed for a fourteen year-old whom one may assume is too young to have had the experiences about which she writes and sings. In “Waiting for Something,” she sings “I don’t know why I do these things / I always regret them in the end.” Although not heavy philosophy, it’s more college dorm than middle school playground. “Clap On” and “Glider” are vitriolic attacks people who lie to themselves as well as to others. The title track shows a heavy Vanessa Carlton influence, and is as good as anything the older girl has written.

People who hate pop music might complain that this production destroys the sisters’ diamond-in-the-rough quality, but less snobby indie fans will appreciate the polishing of the diamond. The first album sounded like something two sisters might have concocted in their bedroom. Free to Stay, produced by Death Cab for Cutie’s Jason McGeer (who taught Chloe how to play the drums), is a fully-realized product. [www.smoosh.com]