Description
When Sarah Everton and her husband hoofed it to rural Virginia some years back, that spelt the unofficial break-up of her Philadelphia trio Blowdryer, and she proceeded to hole up for the great plague that we’ve all pretended to forget. Some of those “late period” Blowdryer songs were sitting around from a direction Everton had been plotting in which she’d attempt Carole King doing Electric Eels-style songs. Added Dimensions – triumphantly named after a plus-sized clothing store her mother frequented back when stores really had names like that – was the result.
Those first 2022 home-assembled recordings might not have fully nailed the Tapestry / God Says Fuck You hybrid (keep trying!!), but they weren’t far off, and there was some real “buzz” that year, as we say in the industry, about her sharp, minimalist punk cassette tape debut. Added Dimensions’ short and aggressive pure-DIY songs then were particularly influenced, and still are to some extent, by The Urinals and Wipers. Everton’s themes centered around hating her job, being depressed, the indignities of masking and how exhausting it is/was, drugs (“Default Mode”), hating the music industry (“Wirey”), and social media/internet bullshit (“You Got My Number”). Themes everyone can rally around!
For years, dating back to her time in Reading/Bleeding Rainbow in the late 00s/early 10s, it’s been Everton’s voice that’s been a primary calling card. Not because it’s operatic or snotty or bratty or overwrought, but because she brings a clean, melodic and still tuff set of pipes to each track, a thoroughly natural voice with no phony-ass adornment. “Sing as you speak”. I wish more did it as well as Sarah, who is instantly vocally recognizable three seconds into any given Added Dimensions verse. She even harmonizes with herself on “You Got My Number”, and it’s totally fantastic.
HoZac is now bringing out Added Dimensions’ earliest recordings on vinyl because, bless ‘em, that’s what HoZac does. The A-side here is the original 2022 tape, and the flip’s got demos and even a Blowdryer practice recording of top track “Default Mode”. You’re likely to find yourself extremely compatible with Added Dimensions in this full-length, aurally pleasing form.
– Jay Hinman
