Perhaps to their detriment, Sydney Seaford takes everything seriously. The Chicago-based songwriter cut their teeth in the mountains of Appalachia, and still calls upon that fog, channeling vignettes of disconnection and dissociation through big, weathered guitars… fighting the feeling just long enough to find a tune.

Years spent in bands, on stages, and on the highways of North Carolina taught Seaford how suffocating it can be to play songs you don’t believe in to sparse audiences, and they found themselves overwhelmed by a desire to create something not for opposing ears, but for their own.

Drawing upon the withering poeticism of Phoebe Bridgers, the distorted surrender of The Haw Creek Wrecking Crew, and the free-flowing neuroticism of a late night notes app adventure, Sydney Seaford channels this ceaseless energy into a cohesive effort that trades performance for confession.

A more than worthy debut, “Death and Taxes” leaves no stone unturned in its sardonic search for self, sacrificing a sweet finish and satisfying resolution for a not-so-swift resignation.