1
a : a discarded mistress b : a woman who has had an illegitimate child
2
a : a woman whose husband is temporarily away from her b : a woman divorced or separated from her husband

Assuming that like us, you, were unfamiliar with the rather antiquated term that the San Francisco trio Grass Widow chose for a handle, we provided Webster’s principal and secondary definitions. I think we can safely say that none of those meanings are flattering, and all imply that a woman is somehow lacking in the absence of a man.
So they’re kidders in other words, Hannah Lew, Raven Mahon and Lillian Maring, because the women of Grass Widow, as evidenced on the new Past Time don’t appear to be lacking in much. They certainly don’t want for an ability to create sweetly entrancing harmonies, or as CokeMachineGlow points out, more accurately, “disparate parts that fit together to form a fractured whole, suffusing their melodies with an unnerving beauty and their sound with a slightly dizzying sense of plurality.”

They’re they’re off kilter girl group pop (“Fried Egg”), they’re moody post punk (“Shadow” and “11 of Diamonds”), they’re skewed surf (“Strangers Come”) and they manage to be both ghostly and ominous and have a touch of humor  (“Give Me Shapes”) and it's washed in a softening sonic sheen that’s nothing but inviting. At least that’s what we think.

How about you? Last year the ladies released an EP and self titled album, but the newly released second full length is an even greater distillation of the GW sound. Which means it’s time to check it out and write a review! And give it a rating! Tell the Noisevox community what you think of Past Time from Grass Widow.