by David Serra
Airport Girl weaves instruments, styles, and direction on their debut full-length, Honey, I'm an Artist. Noisy pop guitar rockers, in the vein of Pavement or the Pixies, can be heard next to sweet, sentimental, string-focused ballads, like those of Belle & Sebastian. The songs have a melancholy feel and a tight structure that never seems to move in any new destination. At their most successful moments, Airport Girl uses an array of instruments and players that can create very sweet exchanges between guitars, keyboards, harmonica, melodica, and theremin. "Home on the Range" is a fun country swing that has interesting acoustic picking and harmonica. At times, Airport Girl touches on the sincerity of the quiet moments of Hood. "Between Delta and Delaware" is a great example of the guitars working off one another to create a fun, poppy melody, while the vocal delivery is rhythmic and off-the-cuff, sounding a lot like Number One Cup. The big choruses throughout Honey, I'm an Artist are an added highlight to the record, where mixing choices can sometimes diminish the big feel. Guitars are sometimes buried, and strings can bury keyboards when they need to be stepped up to achieve a dissonance that Airport Girl seems to be after. "Surf #7 Wave" drives to the end of Honey, I'm an Artist with distortion and dream pop melodies, making you wonder what Airport Girl's next effort will cover.