Singer Rex Garfield wrote the bulk of Ace of Hearts (Funzalo Records) with guitarist and beau Ste Rasch. Garfield’s lyrics are plaintive and her breathy delivery is like that of a quiet friend finding the courage to speak up.
The best moments of Ace of Hearts occur when Garfield and Rasch sing together, emulating the equity of a relationship with unfussy male/female vocals. In “Midnight,” Garfield waxes poetic about the minutia of long-term love when she sings, “I think it’s safe to say / I’ll watch his chest hair turnin’ gray.”
And Green Pitch prove they can do more than voice-and-guitar humdrum when they use pedal steel and melodica as foils to express both lightheartedness and the blues in “Going South.” At best, Green Pitch recalls the Secret Stars – minus their experimental streak – or Low at their daintiest.
Music this simple demands patience. Their song “Liverpool” is so slow that by the time a whole phrase is pronounced, you’re likely to forget what the start of the sentence was. Sweet and sad but a little boring, their songs endear themselves into your company and mostly manage to straddle the border between the right ‘n’ wrong side of sappy.
– Kristin Grayewski
Green Pitch (Funzalo Records)