Ugh is a cry of frustration: you’ve been trying and it’s not working out. Five years after their self-titled debut, electronic avant-pop outfit Harry the Nightgown embrace failure on their most maximalist, bittersweet record yet. Ugh, their latest eleven-song offering on Leaving Records, is an exercise in freaked-out perfectionism — sighing and grinding to reveal a degree of care rooted, perhaps, more in exasperation than in self-possession.
Now a trio, original members Spencer Hartling — solo artist tp Dutchkiss, experimental producer and founder of Wiggle World studio — and Sami Perez — of The She’s and Jerry Paper — are joined by east coast basement DIY harmonic theory whiz Luke Macdonald, who also tours with Sami in the band Cherry Glazerr. It’s a restless connection; on Ugh, nothing’s settled for. Cue record opener, “Bell Boy” — chopped hardware jitters and twinkles against Perez’s delivery, ranging between pensive, mean and bashful, yet somehow, surprisingly, it all contorts together into warbling harmony. Anxiety never sounded so dazzling.
