Indie artist Shep Treasure’s second full-length album, “Blanket,” feels like taking a walk after a blizzard, leaving the house for a world sheathed in layers of pearl grey and reflected sunlight.
Sabrina Nichols, the primary creative force behind the band’s name, wrote “Blanket” after moving back to her native Rochester from Brooklyn. Nichols takes charge on nearly every aspect of her music’s output, recording and mixing the album in her basement with contributions from partner James Keegan (who releases his own music under the moniker Kitchen).
“Orchard Beach City Island” — titled after the Bronx’s only public beach — is the only song on the nine-track LP featuring instrumentals from anyone other than Nichols and Keegan, with drums provided by Shep Treasure’s previous live drummer Nick Sullivan. Nichols also made the videos for the album’s two singles, “Fired and Expelled” and “Cold Air.”
“Blanket” gets a little thicker and heavier than Shep Treasure’s 2023 album “500 Dead or Alive,” adding layers of fuzzy guitar and eerie-ethereal harmonies reminiscent of Elliott Smith’s “XO.” Catchy, somewhat poppier tracks like “Scarecrow Blue Bow” balance long, slow-burning pieces that bookend the album. Gentle opener “Dove” (for which Nichols learned drums) paves the way for “Fired and Expelled,” the album’s first single, which yearns for an exit from the monotony of working life with a wry almost-smile.
Shep Treasure’s lyrics hinge on simple, strong phrases in repetition delivered by Nichols’ deceptively gentle head voice. The midpoint track on “Blanket,” “Omnipotent,” hits the peak of this hypnotic recipe with nearly eight minutes of a building, slightly discordant soundscape that turns the refrain (You know / I’m omnipotent) into an invocation. While most of the album’s song titles reference the natural world, this thread of supernatural omnipotence echoes in the eponymous closing track’s refrain: If I want it, then it’s mine.
Elliott Sky Case is a poet, arts & culture writer, obsessive song repeater, multimedia artist and zine maker under the name Dank O’Hara. Follow them @dank.ohara.
