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\n\tBlood harmonies: there\u2019s magic in \u2018em, literal and figurative \u2014 nature and nurture, love and rivalry, atmospheric alchemy born of living room dust and familial mishigas. Blood harmonies alone would be reason enough to cheer the surprise debut of Snocaps \u2014 Waxahatchee<\/a>\u2019s Katie Crutchfield and twin sister Allison Crutchfield of Swearin\u2019 <\/a>and P.S. Eliot, the best-known of their teenaged pop-punk sister acts. Of course, Sister Katie is also coming off two of the decade\u2019s best albums, St. Cloud <\/a><\/em>and Tigers Blood<\/a><\/em>, the latter distinguished by her delicious harmonies with MJ Lenderman<\/a> (whose electric guitar work is all over this new project, alongside Waxahatchee wingman Brad Cook) and her remarkable songwriting hot-streak.<\/p>\n \n\tThat streak continues here, but the real delight of this ostensible side project is Allison Crutchfield\u2019s return to the mic after an extended absence, and the rebirth of a sibling rock band, apparently sans fistfights or cricket bats. That means two great songwriters who, one senses here, write a little differently working together than they do separately.<\/p>\n \n\tThe first release by Snocaps <\/em>\u2014 a band name shared by a tooth-cracking old-school movie theater candy and a kneecapping new-school cannabis product \u2014 suggests as much. For one, this feels like a classic indie-rock record, minus the pedal steel and other signifiers that rebranded Waxahatchee as a kind of New South country-rock project. The songwriting\u2019s shared, Katie getting six songs to Allison\u2019s seven, which seems fair \u2014 Allison\u2019s last record was Swearin\u2019s fine 2018 Fall into the Sun<\/em>, so she\u2019s playing catching up, per usual, having come to songwriting a bit later in life than her sister.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cCoast,\u201d which jumps off a discount-store drum-machine pulse, is one of two Allison songs that open the album, and it sets the tone for a song set that lives and bleeds largely on the road, emotions churning as time and miles hurtle by. \u201c22nd is a straight shot south,\u201d she sings, rhyming it with \u201cyou finally open your mouth\u201d and confessing \u201cI got the pedal on the floor\/ or I\u2019m slamming on the breaks\/I could never just coast\u201d \u2014 the twins leaning into the last line like a shared secret so foundational it becomes private language.\u00a0<\/p>\n