Vivian Girls founding member Katy (“Kickball Katy”) Goodman is heralding a new chapter of her life in a pretty kickass way. Hour of the Dawn, her third album under the La Sera moniker, comes not long after Vivian Girls’ January 2014 breakup, capping a seven-year run that made them one of the most acclaimed and beloved bands in DIY indie rock. Although Goodman already released two albums as La Sera, Hour of the Dawn takes a distinct turn away from the more subdued, occasionally melancholy sound of her 2011 self-titled debut or 2012’s Sees the Light.
Hour of the Dawn packs a powerful punch, pulsating with energy in the form of ’80s punk-inspired rhythm sections, sharp guitar playing (with an occasional blistering solo) by Todd Wisenbaker, and Goodman’s unforgiving, sharp-tongued lyrics. She pens a note to her counterpart in a toxic relationship in the album’s first single, “Losing to the Dark,” and mentions in “Running Wild,” another song written in second-person, that “there’s no use in crying if you’re drowning in the sea.” There’s neither a sense of mourning nor victory, but something more like a powerful resolve to keep fighting the fight– a steely determination to triumph over the things that plagued her in the first two albums, knowing that things will be better on the other side. Listen below.
Hour of the Dawn is out on May 13 on Hardly Art records.
