Karrie Hopper

An Unusual Move

(Nobody's Favorite)

Record Review by Adam McKibbin

Austin acoustic folkie Karrie Hopper sounds like she could be strumming and singing to you right in your living room on An Unusual Move, an album that is unusual—even by lo-fi indie folk standards—in its unforced intimacy.  Hopper’s unique vocals convey both aw-shucks girlishness and the wry worldview of a] woman who’s lived through a hard battle or two (“And I went to war” is the opening line of the album, delivered matter-of-factly…the “And” bringing the listener in at mid-conversation).

Hopper’s songs are fairly straightforward, accenting with just the right touches of breakaway melodies, like the cracking heights of the chorus on the title track.  While it’s easy to see Drag City audiences and Devendra Banhart becoming smitten with Hopper, it’s also tempting to imagine her opening for, say, Band of Horses—nothing on An Unusual Move rocks, but there’s some of that same haunted Americana that graces BoH albums.  This loose parallel also emerges on “Ten Years from Now,” a lovely, understated duet that sounds ripe for (now former) BoH’er Mat Brooke.  On these simplest of songs, success hinges on Hopper’s vocals, and while they occasionally blur together from song-to-song, her best songs are sung so convincingly that they could be done a cappella and still be compelling.