Raavi
The Boston-born and New-York-City-based pop-rock unit Raavi has made constant reinvention a common thread through their five-plus years of making music together. Led by singer-songwriter and guitarist Raavi Sita, the quartet prides themselves on pivoting stylistically between each subsequent release and remaining in dialogue with the music communities surrounding them. The emo-adjacent catharsis that runs through the band’s previous discography—from the 2018 debut EP i miss you already to their 2019 debut album Don’t Hit Me Up to their EPs and singles of the 2020s—points back to their DIY roots.
However, Sita’s sharp melodicism and disciplined songforms have always also betrayed the influence of vintage singer-songwriters like Joni Mitchell and Nick Drake. The band’s new release, the EP The Upside, overlaps with the latter tradition. With fewer plugged-in sounds, it marks a left turn from the massive rock edifices that Raavi fans are used to. Its five richly poetic songs were written over the course of a few years, capturing different mini-eras in Sita’s life. They examine formative romantic encounters (“Take Me”), gender awakening (“Henry”), and disillusionment (“Shadows”). The experiences Sita describes on The Upside are sometimes upsetting, but the songs represent a triumph over adversity, serving as moves toward solidifying a fuller identity. Its candid and restrained songwriting makes it an essential listen for both devotees and newcomers.
Sister.
Sister. is a Brooklyn-based indie trio composed of Hannah Pruzinsky (they/she), Ceci Sturman (she/her), and James Chrisman (he/him). Senior year of college, Ceci wrote a song for a course assignment and asked Hannah, her roommate since freshman year, to sing it, and the two of them soon started gigging. In the five years since, they’ve been living together and writing songs that could only come from their friendship, trust, and openness. James joined in 2020, and the three of them grew close as collaborators and friends through the early days of the pandemic, during which they remotely recorded their 2020 debut EP Soft Spot. In 2021, Sister. followed up with their sophomore studio EP Something / Nothing.
In October 2023, Sister. released their debut LP, Abundance. The album was largely self-recorded in Woodstock, New York in a friend’s cabin, where a nearby creek was constantly picked up in the mics, and rain on the roof periodically ruined vocal takes. The band was finishing overdubs in Hannah’s closet back in Brooklyn when Felix Walworth (Told Slant, Florist) offered to play on the album, so Sister. enlisted Alex Harwood (Bloomsday) to record Felix’s drums and later to mix the record. A final song was recorded in Felix’s bedroom, straight to tape.
