'The Golden Record' lives up to its name

Little Scream’s debut album, “The Golden Record,” has been receiving a lot of buzz, but mostly because of the famous people peripherally connected to the album. This is a real shame because Little Scream makes a very promising debut, not just some gimmicky guest-fest.

Little Scream is the stage name for Laurel Sprengelmeyer, who sings and plays guitar, violin and keyboards on the album. She has a voice that sounds fragile one second and rock solid the next.

“The Golden Record” has a big, sometimes epic sound, but it doesn’t achieve it through traditional means. Bands like Arcade Fire achieve that feel by packing a zillion instruments on stage. Little Scream gets a similar result through reverb and constantly shifting instrumentation; the album sounds like it was recorded in a canyon.

The album rarely rocks out, instead focusing on haunting melodies as best exemplified by “The Heron and the Fox.”

Many of the songs on “The Golden Record” are achingly beautiful. Hopefully we won’t have to wait too long for more of them.