Every now and then an album comes into your life that utterly wrecks you. It resonates with you on a level where you can’t tell if it’s easing the knife out of your wound or if it’s twisting it more. But you keep coming back even if it’s destroying you because as painful as it might be, Katie Ellen’s ‘Cowgirl Blues’ is one of those albums. From The Ashes of the band Chumped , their first and last album Teenage Retirement, Now comes Anika Pyle’s aka Katie Ellen first solo foray.
Its great Alt-Indie Pop/punk flow with the same biting lyrical content that made her former band a joy to behold with just enough edge to keep things real.
Anika Pyle was a songwriter with much to say and an electrifying way of saying it. She’s extremely good at writing about her personal life in a way that feels vital and universal. Fortunately, although Chumped are dearly departed, Pyle and former Chumped drummer Dan Frelly have relocated to Philadelphia and reemerged as Katie Ellen, a new project for a new phase of life. On their debut album Cowgirl Blues, her old charged-up tales of quarter-life romantic longing and disillusionment give way to more measured tempos and an overall more bleary disposition, Despite the darker shading, her songs remain remarkably catchy and alive perhaps painfully so,
Anika Pyle – Vocals, Guitars
Anthony Tinnirella – Guitars
Dan Frelly – Drums
Eric Sheppard – Vocals, Bass
All songs written by Anika Pyle
The Fat Angel Sings 