When they’re not penning comics, Joanna Sternberg records songs fit for New York’s anti-folk era in the early 2000s, the scene that birthed the Moldy Peaches and Diane Cluck. Armed with an extensive compositional background from the New School, Sternberg turns their worries and daily battles — depression, suicidal ideation, self-hatred — into lo-fi folk jaunts. From piano ballad “My Angel” to the self-explanatory “This Is Not Who I Want To Be,” a painful transparency takes hold, and it lingers long into the night.
Sternberg has turned pain into beauty in the making of their second album, written during pandemic exile. Balancing raw emotion with meticulous craftsmanship, their warm voice soothes with disarming self-deprecation.
The Fat Angel Sings 