Aubrey Debauchery

Aubrey Pope was still in high school when she was one of the front persons in the schizoid punk/indie/screamo Chico band Stars Upon Thars. Now, a couple years later, Aubrey has renamed herself Aubrey Debauchery and remade her musical profile by adding singer/ songwriter to her repertoire. And she’s still only 20 years old. While the production here is minimal, this home-computer-recorded debut is anything but a casual side product. The CD is imbued with the confidence of someone throwing herself into each tune, and the committed performances are magnetic. The songs are of the mostly sad, boy-girl breakup variety, but Aubrey’s willingness to dwell on some of the dark truths, in songs like “Alcoholic” and “His Name Is Murder,” makes for some compelling mini-dramas. My favorite is the sparsely decorated “Don’t Let Me Love You.” The ascending melody repeating throughout is as simple an acoustic-guitar line as you can imagine, slowly arpeggiated to provide a lulling foundation for Aubrey singing both vocal parts and telling a weary story of heartache: “Don’t let me into your world/ if it’s because you have nothing better to do.”