“Bang Bang,” from Tiny Ocean’s debut album Sometimes You’re Right, starts off with a jangling, fuzzy guitar, then quickly gets down to business: steady drums, a driving bass, and a guitar line that’s stabbing and bouncy at the same time. It’s a little bit rock ‘n’ roll, a little bit surf, and more than a little country and noir. It does more than make a mood; it sets a scene.
“I’m in your town, my heart goes bang, bang, bang,” vocalist and guitarist Kierstin Sieser sings. “I let it slip, my heart goes clang, clang, clang. Always starts out strong at first, but time builds a universe.” As the song churns toward its chorus, there’s a mounting sense of excitement and dread. Who has the singer come to see? What will happen when they meet? Is this a story of love? Or revenge? Or both? Or something else altogether?
This sense of narrative drama pervades Sometimes You’re Right, a lean, smart, and emotionally affecting album from a band that has been honing its chops on New Haven’s stages for several months. The music is right where it should be. Keith Newman and Jon Morse on bass and drums, respectively, know how to push the beat forward and when to lay back, all while playing sparsely enough to leave plenty of room for Jeremy Coster’s lead guitar, which is thoroughly vibey all the way through the album, creating the atmosphere the songs need. Both Coster and Newman also do double duty as background vocalists.
But Tiny Ocean is really grounded by Sieser. Her rhythm guitar provides the songs’ harmonic foundation. Most important, however, are her vocals. Sieser has a gift for singing simply and directly while still saturating her melodies with feeling and allowing room to play with phrasing. That and Sieser’s unfussy approach to production mean that the songwriting is front and center. And what songs they are.
All the songs on Sometimes You’re Right feel lived in, pared down to their essence, no words wasted. Every song has a line to bring you up short. The maybe in the line “we’ll think of you when you die — maybe we’ll shed a tear” in the album’s opener, “Astronaut,” is like a hook in the skin. Likewise, the tiny lyrical shift from “you want to run away” to “you can’t run away” in the chorus to “The Flame and the Fang” tells an entire story. Meanwhile, “Poison” is filled with a hard-earned hope. “Take me down the road. Tell me what you’re thinking,” Sieser sings. “Look me in the eyes. Tell me what you’re dreaming. Put your hand on my thighs. Tell me what I’m missing.” When she gets to the stinging last line — “‘Cause there’s nothing we can do, won’t be poison running through,” you know she’ll survive it.
With Sometimes You’re Right, Tiny Ocean has made an album to stir the appetite for the band’s live shows (the group next appears at Best Video on Oct. 4). But Sieser has also written a first album that doesn’t feel like a first album. It feels sure and true. Tiny Ocean may be one of the newer bands on the scene, but Sieser and crew already play like they’ve been around for years, and are finally coming home.
