Sometimes it’s hard to know when to stay or when to just get the hell out. Sometimes the decision is made for you. Kristin Hersh moved to Providence, Rhode Island from Atlanta when she was six years old and met Tanya Donelly there, the pair forming the Throwing Muses in the early eighties before relocating to Boston. Released in 2025, the last band’s last album Moonlight Concessions was conceived as the singer had been living in a van, but a time later she found herself back in Providence once more.
It was the events which form the core of Sugar On Blackstone however that finally snapped any ties that bound; after a stand off with local police, Hersh’s close friend Domonick Knight aged 38, here the tragedy is brought into start focus on Ticking, where the singer recounts dressing his children for the funeral.
Other more personal recollections surface on the battered, epic opener Dark Eyed Junco, where a childhood spent never wanting to go home gnaws unhappily. Throughout Hersh’s voice – cracked, vulnerable, careworn – is an instrument in itself, accompanied by Pete Harvey’s austere cello and Rob Ahlers’ perfect drums. Whilst the gravity of Sugar On Blackstone’s subject matter is undeniable, it’s finest moment Silver Beach is framed by visions of California; once the choice to leave has been made, going back is an option for fools.
You can read a full review here.
The Voice Of Unreason 