Hailing from Rhode Island, indie-pop artist Miss Geo is ready to make a big impact on the New England music scene, and with an album like The Story, it’s hard not to be impressed. The album contains some of the best vocal tracks I’ve heard from a local artist in a long time. The project serves as a solo outlet for leading lady Abby Gutierrez. Her voice is a wonderful combination of Tegan and Sara with a splash of Metric thrown in for good measure.
Gutierrez seems to have cracked the code for crafting perfect pop songs; her track Snake Soiree being a prime example of her talent. The long, slow build-up of the verse into a full-on synth-laden dance party chorus is brilliant. Once again, I found myself dancing in my chair as I typed this review.
Gutierrez’ talents extend far deeper than just instrumentation or orchestration of songs. Her lyrical descriptions are quite striking. Fore xample, in Snake Soiree she described her significant other as being “muter than the silent film stars”, an image that I found to be very powerful.
This collection of songs is well-worth a listen (or two, or three). I would not be surprised to hear her songs start showing up on the radio (they certainly have enough hooks and pop-clarity). If my ravings about Miss Geo haven’t yet convinced you of Gutierrez’ skills, head on over to the Miss Geo Myspace page or check Miss Geo out live (accompanied by her live band consisting of fellow musicians Jessy Bartlett, Chris Mendoza, and James Wilhelmsen).
–Daniel McMahon