While doubt and anxiety are common 21st century preoccupations, Gretel's emotive honesty is of the type usually reserved for confessionals and bathroom stalls. Lyrics of disappointment and denial, tales of death and anomie all shimmer with precision and intensity, while the melodies and harmonies, the instrumentation and the energy of their live shows glitter with the possible, the have-able, the low-key lush of the here and now. The sound is eclectic, borrowing from folk music, alt country, punk and the blues. Whether through the mundane nostalgia of a typewriter, the ecstatic heights of an operatic line, the eerie swan song of a bowed saw, or the feel-good sneaking sorrow of a country tune, Gretel’s palette is broad. Each song sits within its own well-deserved world, refreshingly interpreted and never underexposed. This Boston-based group, led by songwriter and mouthpiece Reva Williams, are about to birth their third studio project, The Dregs, a lamentation for the corps of the anti-nothing on their co-op label, Eyeteeth Records.