Alicja Pop “Howlin'” 2021. Black Wyatt Records. Signed + noted date/place of purchase (Dirtnap Records Fest 2022). We got this from Alicja (Trout) herself at the fest where she performed with her old band, the Memphis-based River City Tanlines (their 2006 LP I’m Your Negative was on Dirtnap – that one still in the to-do pile). According to her Bandcamp, Howlin’ “is a compilation of several years of songs. Some tracks are minimal with one instrument. Some are studio recordings with layers of vocal harmonies and instrument overdubs…Alicja-pop is both a solo endeavor and a group venture featuring Lori McStay, Jared McStay, and Andrew Geraci.” Howlin’ is another pull that’s been sitting in a (now shrinking) pile for almost two years – it’s my first listen. It’s a bit disjointed for style/content so upon reading about being a comp – things make a bit more sense. There’s some sparsely sweet tracks (the dream pop “Vines #1 solo version” and the slightly more experimental “Will U Come“) and then a few (that I prefer) that are more upbeat garage rockers: “Feel It,” “Glass Planet/Blank Space Mind” and then a more pop-punk song (“Don’t Say No“). My top track is the ultra-short, punky, lo-fi and weird “Creepface” (plus the name of the song is awesome). Howlin’ makes for an odd listen overall: I think the sparser/dream-poppier songs could have been split off on one side and then the rockers placed on the other (it’s all mixed together which isn’t terrible, just a bit abrupt and odd), or two EP’s maybe?