Maryn Jones’ debut cassette as Yowler is a slow-burning collection of creeping poetry: images of rising tides, blue waves, and layers of ice eerily serve as the serene backdrop on which she works through feelings of doubt, longing, confusion. There isn’t much in the way of hopefulness until the tape’s final moments, on the title track, “The Offer”. Over a haunting steady strummed guitar and a cryptic recurring piano line, she swears she’ll destroy what destroys her. “The offer I make / is a promise to stay here / though my wounds do grow / may I hold onto this hope,” she sings, her words crackling over muted minor chords.
Jones is best known as the singer of the Columbus pop punk four-piece All Dogs, but she’s also a member of Saintseneca, a four-piece folk group that employs banjos, foot-stomping, and careful songwriting. If the two projects seem disjointed, Yowler connects the dots, drawing from the perfect pop melodrama of All Dogs and the intimacy of Saintseneca. The Offer is out next month on Double Double Whammy.
