North Carolina-born singer Sallie Ford makes hay out of her obsession with various ’50s and ’60s pop styles on her new album Soul Sick. The former leader of Portland, Ore., neo-rockabilly band Sallie Ford and the Sound Outside, Ford breaks into a brief rockabilly section on the Soul Sick track “Romanticized Catastrophe,” a song that sums up her preoccupation with self-identity. Ford sings in a throaty alto that wobbles out of control at strategic moments, and she has a way with the primal garage-rock riff — several songs amount to loopy commentaries on the work of The Troggs and Love. I admire Ford’s ability to re-create blithe ’60s pop on the record’s “Rapid Eyes,” which sports a horn arrangement and guitar lick that could have adorned a 1969 Chips Moman production cut at Memphis’ American Studios. Also appearing is Austin, Texas, singer Molly Burch, who performs in a post-folkie manner on her latest album, Please Be Mine. EDD HURT
Sallie Ford w/Molly Burch
