Geek the Girl

The album is as sonically unified as it is textually. A recurring circuslike theme sets the dark, absurdist tone of the heroine's life, and the songs share a raw but ethereal wash--chilling at times, exhilarating at others, and often both at once. Croaking guitars, wailing violins, and Germano's faint, breathy singing mold impressions of pain and fragility, while the record remains spare and intimate. Geek the Girl is no small achievement. --Roni Sarig