Album Review: Pree ‘Folly’

Damn it’s been a good year for NYC’s up-and-coming Paper Garden Records. The label is responsible for Thought on Tracks favs Little Tybee and Big Tree. Now enter Washington, D.C.-based electric-folk band Pree. The four-piece band is the brainchild of guitarist May Tabol, who formed the group after departing from Le Loup.

I’ll leave it to the band for an explanation of how they came together:

“Folly was written and recorded over the course of several heat waves and snow storms by May and her cohorts in a rotating cast of bedrooms, basements, and attics across the District, bearing witness to two foreclosures, a bit of squatting, a larger bit of eviction, and a subsequent life shuffle that would rival that of a wind-addled gypsy moth. The patchwork, guerilla style of recording which grew out of necessity ultimately served to instill a sense of tension throughout the record, leaving one hanging on despite the imminence of something so delicate falling apart.”

Their debut release Folly is anything but. Tabol’s cheerful, bouncy vocals weave in and out of her bandmates, melding together like the most beautifully constructed bar room conversation. The last line of their description of the album’s recording proves apt. Folly feels as if it’s built like a house of cards, were any individual element removed, it would all come crumbling toward the floor.

Pree is in the midst of a rigorous tour schedule until early December. Listen to tracks “Lemon Tree” and “Fresh Paint” below. Purchase Folly on CD or vinyl: HERE. It is also available via Spotify. Their debut came together like a perfect storm. It will prove interesting to see whether or not this quartet can create equally entertaining sounds once they’ve settled in.

Written by Rob Peoni