To make her whimsical new indie-folk album, Architecture Exuberant!, Chicagoland native Asher White used a dozen or so instruments—including, as she writes in the liner notes, a broken accordion and a drum set she bought off eBay. Her kitchen-sink approach—which also involved guiro, banjo, prepared piano, and ceramic plates—gives Architecture Exuberant! a charmingly ragged, bucolic earthiness. White’s easygoing songwriting accentuates the intimacy of her diaristic, impressionistically detailed lyrics, while the quasi-symphonic instrumental harmonies in her arrangements balance stateliness against a homemade bedroom-pop feel. White is still finishing up her undergraduate education at the Rhode Island School of Design, and she brings youthful enthusiasm and open-heartedness to this material. On “Colorwheel (J.M.W. Turner),” her resplendent synths, marching-band-style drumming, and layered vocal harmonies build to a technicolor crescendo with the same heart-on-sleeve euphoria that drew me to Arcade Fire.
Asher White’s Architecture Exuberant! is available through Bandcamp.
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