Although I had never heard of Kimya Dawson before receiving this CD, I now feel like we are good friends, sisters, roommates, play buddies, preschoolers in a sandbox discussing boys and our insecurities and the world around us. Kimya Dawson sings in a very plain, dry voice, but the words she spouts out and the accompanying acoustic guitar is beautiful in the purest and most personal form. I find myself constantly humming and clapping to her tunes all day at work, at school, and even while I’m trying to fall asleep at night, thinking about all the shit I’ve got to do the next day, but still smiling and remembering just how sweet life is. Kimya’s songs remind me of the ridiculous ditties my friends and I make up while riding in the car, and her words are as close to me as the pen I’m holding in my hand while writing this. Kimya Dawson sounds like a one-woman Rilo Kiley, still stuck underground in the garage with her guitar and her 8-track, but she’s happy as can be, smiling and singing and delivering it raw and uncooked. Her songs have an elementary feel to them, like nursery rhymes or hopscotch chants, but her words present the wise, mature, and omniscient sense of wellbeing of your sweet grandmother, combined with the witty humor of your sarcastic best friend. “My Mom,” “Loose Lips,” “I Like Giants,” and “My Rollercoaster” are the catchiest songs on the record, in which the only cure is just to listen to them again and again, which truly isn’t such a punishment. “I Like Giants” stands out on the record as much as the girls in the song who feel like giants when entering a room. “Rock ‘n’ roll is fun, but if you ever hear someone say that you are huge/look at the moon, look at the stars, look at the sun/look at the ocean, and the desert, and the mountains and the sky,” Kimya advises. “Rollercoaster” is the last song of the album, and expresses feelings of infatuation and of the humble ups and downs of life, and the joys of playing music with friends. Overall, this album is refreshingly positive and empowering. Kimya Dawson, remember that I love you!

(K Records, PO Box 7154, Olympia, WA 98507)