Split Tooth Media’s Pick of the Day is a series in which we highlight under-appreciated, overlooked or oddball music, movies, games or whatever works we feel are important and worth sharing about. Feel free to share your picks with us in a comment below. 

Kerry Alexander writes pop songs with a sweet vengeance. As the singer and lyricist for Minneapolis trio Bad Bad Hats, Alexander carries a sense of wonder about relationships and identity, about the nuances of intimacy and sex in a changing world. She writes about past relationships and searches for answers in songs the way others might seek a crystal ball for clues to the future. The band keeps its namesake (from the children’s book series Madeline) in mind, but they don’t write songs with a child’s sense of wonder.

The trio (comprising Alexander on vocals and guitar, drummer Chris Hoge and guitarist Connor Davison) released its first record, the aptly named Psychic Reader, in 2015. Many of the lyrics are personal reflections on the past, but the music feels more collaborative than a diary entry. With fuzzy, ’90s-tinged guitars, crisp drums from Hoge and Alexander’s breathy but attentive vocal delivery, their music is anything but passive.

Alexander often directly addresses another person in her lyrics, commanding a lover’s attention. Sometimes she’s asking about her partner’s intentions; sometimes she’s telling this partner what she needs from them. In “Fight Song” she sings, “Picture the end now, elbows on table / Let me down easy, my heart is fatal.” But on the record’s first track, the meandering “Midway,” Alexander pleads over guitar riffs, both with herself and her partner: “I wanna hear you tell me you don’t know what you’ll do / The words you were not saying nearly filled up the room.” She and the characters in her songs are trying to learn from failed relationships, but they inevitably repeat their mistakes. It’s a tired topic, but Alexander’s playful songwriting rarely approaches cliche.

Psychic Reader is filled with enough human detail and imperfect guitar flourishes to avoid becoming overly sentimental. The band’s trio setup keeps them musically limited and creative; the album contains catchy hooks and structured songwriting, but pop is never the only thing present. Alexander’s voice, both as a lyricist and singer, represents this well. Most of the time her phrasing is reminiscent of pop-punk vocalists. At her best though, her breathy and quiet Southern accent comes through when she sings. (She moved to Minnesota from the Southern United States to attend college). Alexander never forces these stylings. Instead, the emotions conveyed in the songs pull this out of her.

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But voice isn’t the only way Alexander and the band shirk the cliche. Producer Brett Bullion and the band don’t lean on grand pop sensibilities to carry the album’s production, even in a synth-laden track like “Spin.” Some tracks have the faintest hint of kazoo, and lyrics like “Am I dumb, are you mean to me? / Is it dumb how much you mean to me?” are too playful and endearing to be heavy handed.

The songs and production on Psychic Reader are both universal and intimate — like hearing a friend tell you about something so specifically dumb her boyfriend did and realizing that yours has done something eerily similar. “Things We Never Say,” the quietest song on the album, isn’t overly precious. Alexander’s voice is in the front of the mix, but her guitar isn’t buried far underneath. It might feature repetitive dialogue, but the sentiment is detailed. “You never say you love me, but you never let me fight you / Can’t get you off my mind, babe, so I bought this dress to spite you.” The word “you” is utilized as a refrain, but it’s not overused.

“Picture the future, step back to face it / Make love to me easy, my heart is basic,” Alexander sings in “Fight Song,” She may say her heart is basic, but Psychic Reader’s evaluation of intimacy and attraction is anything but simple.

Listen to Bad Bad Hats on Bandcamp

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