Hole in My Head

This isn't an acoustic album: it's a lean, nervy rock album that uses its mess and its contradictions to its own advantage.

There’s something inherently welcoming in the short, sharp, and lyrically open songs, as Laura looks both inwards and outwards at her identity, her chosen music, and her vices. Each track unfolds with an ease only reserved for somebody with so much skin in the game.

It’s evocative stuff, but what makes it more compelling is that it’s delivered by a 43-year-old woman whose tastes can’t be contained by low ceilings, so these observations don’t necessarily arrive with the musical backing you might expect.

None of these modes are new—you might hear echoes of the Ramones’ brash vintage punk, PJ Harvey’s spare 4-track demos, or Jeff Rosenstock’s radically optimistic pop-punk—but Grace comfortably inhabits each.

While “Tacos and Toast” is a cozy, country delight about a relaxing Saturday that develops a sharper edge as it moves along, some of Hole in My Head’s more low key tunes fail to match even the too-slick immediacy of its louder rock songs. That said, the record’s showstopper is “Give Up the Ghost.”