Local Review: Love, Audrey — Greetings from Rocket Park

Love, Audrey
Greetings from Rocket Park
Like Aubrey Records
Street: 11.22.24
Love, Audrey = Better Oblivion Community Center + Great Grandpa

Indie-rock musicians can sometimes take themselves a little (if not a lot) too seriously, and this often results in posturing that stifles their music beneath a veneer of practiced petulance. Fortunately, this isn’t something local indie band Love, Audrey suffers from. While their debut album, Greetings from Rocket Park, is boldly sentimental and even a bit sulky, it’s at no risk of succumbing to its own misery. This is largely due to the band’s use of self-effacing elements that keep the mood light while also giving proper space for the record’s beautiful and poignant moments. 

Love, Audrey displays this marriage of frivolity and emotional depth immediately with the EP’s opening track, “Spiders.” The song begins with a compressed guitar working through a broody chord progression. Meanwhile, a sample of Bob Saget’s “There’s shit everywhere!” monologue from the infamously terrible Dumb and Dumberer:When Harry Met Lloyd is given center stage. Once Saget stops screeching about shit smeared all over his walls, the song really begins as the drums, bass and a second, more distorted guitar roar in all at once. 

In stark contrast to this shit-posty (pun intended) intro, “Spiders” proves to be a remarkably captivating song on which Kienna Panti, in a lovely voice reminiscent of Al Menne, sings about her fear of swallowing spiders in her sleep, her chronic fatigue and a person she lovingly dreams about. While there is a jarring dissonance between how “Spiders” begins and the pathos-laden song it blossoms into, the goofiness is endearing. It makes the listener feel like they’re hearing music played by their personal friends instead of a gaggle of strangers.

The EP then progresses through several fervent ballads whereon the bandmates take turns covering lead vocal duties. Each of them is a fantastic vocalist in their own right, and they are each distinct and do a great job harmonizing with all the others on just about every track.

Love, Audrey also incorporates a wide variety of influences, with each song seeming to take notes from a different antecedent. For example, the second track, “Bedcured,” feels like a blend of Yo La Tengo’s I Can Hear the Heart Beating as One and The Flaming Lips’ Soft Bulletin, whereas the dulcet “How to Spend Valentine’s Day Alone” would be right at home on a melancholy playlist beside boygenius and Lucius. The guitar licks on the jaunty fourth track, “Gonzo,” even adopt some country twang.

This genre-bending gives every song on the album  a unique sonic identity, and it enables Greetings from Rocket Park to avoid the sameness which plagues many a debut outing. That said, I think the record errs a little too strongly toward variety, and it ends up feeling like a compilation album from several talented songwriters instead of a cohesive musical statement that effectively consolidates each contributor’s unique artistry.

This eclecticism isn’t all bad, though. In fact, I think it’s far better for a fledgling band to have too many ideas than too few, and it bodes well for what Love, Audrey may do next. Between the group’s four members, they’ve clearly got no shortage of musical talent, and Greetings from Rocket Park is nothing if not a display of the vision and chutzpah it takes to turn talent into something memorable. If they can refine their collaborative process to better unify each member’s creative strengths, I think Love, Audrey could easily become one of the best new indie bands in the city.

The album’s visceral penultimate track, “Knife Fight,” is the standout song for me, and it represents one very good direction the band could more decisively take on future releases. It begins with muted guitar chucks and reverbed keys setting a bittersweet mood, then grows into a dynamic, shoegazey soundscape over which the group’s various vocalists sing about avoidance, longing and loss. “Hold you close just like a knife,” they all serenade together in the chorus, “Reeling back against real life / I hate to see you giving up / Spilling out my bloody guts.” This heart-rending anthem on the difficulty and pain endemic to human relationships is perfectly complemented by the playfully sad guitar hook that plays throughout. 

After this high note, the EP closes with a derisive gag track titled “Love, Corporate,” which is just a fake voicemail from a label manager calling for an update and to ask “Who the f(bleep)ck is Audrey?” Again, this self mockery is kind of grating after the emotional sincerity of “Knife Fight,” but it’s also an apt counterpart to the Bob Saget sample in “Spiders.” Love, Audrey wants their parting message to be a bit flippant, even after they’ve bared their souls to us, and as I said earlier, this is a breath of fresh air in a genre saturated with tryhards. 

Greetings from Rocket Park is available to stream on both Spotify and Apple Music, and there’s a charming, DIY music video for “Spiders” on the band’s YouTube channel. You can also follow @loveaudreyband on Instagram to stay in the loop about their live shows and new music, which I, for one, am eager to hear. —Joe Roberts

Read more local album reviews:
Local Review: Gavanni — Fever Dream
Local Music Singles Roundup: February 2025