Alex Montenegro calls Great Big Wild Oak, her full-length debut under the Skirts moniker, a “Frankenstein album.” She’s referring to the record’s creation: recollections of demos, recording at various houses or bedrooms, cutting songs entirely. But there’s also something true about the saying to the different sonic approaches Montenegro takes across the album’s 10 tracks. The core of Skirts playing for this release may be a slightly twangy indie rock spun through dreamy effects, but Montenegro explores minimalist, lo-fi sketches, cheap synths, and lusher dream pop.

If there’s one central point Skirts circles on Great Big Wild Oak, it’s the realm of bedroom pop explorations. Montenegro enjoys scrappy sounds, murmured vocals, briefly wacky effects, and inviting friends to contribute non-rock instruments. She performs a balancing act between what sounds closer to Bandcamp demos and what appears as elaborately layered productions. The latter tend to have slightly more appeal as Montenegro’s arranging is one of the stronger elements of the album.

In its simplest form, Montenegro’s approach recalls the lightly dissonant guitar of early ‘00s guitar-based indie rock bands—think Death Cab for Cutie and Modest Mouse. Those acts were themselves taking notes from earlier acts like Built to Spill and Pavement. Montenegro, for her part, actually bears a closer resemblance to even more recent acts, Lomelda and Jay Som being two of the most obvious. Like Jay Som’s Melina Duterte, Montenegro has a knack for intertwining those somewhat-spindly guitars into thick, shoegaze-tinged swirls. Lead single “Always,” perhaps the album’s strongest track, best demonstrates this ability.

Distinct from those acts, Montenegro has a greater interest in twangy edges. Acoustic guitars are common features, but Skirts pushes further. “Easy,” which also incorporates a delightfully swirling woodwind arrangement, plays out a somewhat spacey and psychedelic folk jam. “True” has an almost country swagger with pedal steel accents. “Sapling” has the breezy feel of ‘70s folk (and a banjo for good measure).

In contrast, other tracks find Skirts exploring more lo-fi corners of the indie rock world. These, while holding a trendy sort of cool, often feel underbaked. “Oak” takes a brief, dramatic piano idea and adds on synthetic accents, though the track unfortunately fails to develop these ideas.

Both the opening and closing tracks display a particularly bothersome element of Skirts sound here: an intentionally mumbled vocal delivery that makes the lyrics largely unintelligible. If considered on a scale between some of the aforementioned contemporaries, fans of fellow-Texan Lomelda’s more homemade releases may find this endearing, while those hoping for the invigorated, lush pop of Jay Som will likely consider this an unnecessary barrier.

Great Big Wild Oak is a sketchbook full of ideas. Some excellent, most with promise, some in need of revisiting. The confusion comes when these are presented side by side and show an artist clearly capable of more powerful songcraft and compelling sonics but deluding those with too-cool-to-try ambivalence. When Skirts does step up to the task, however, the results are more than rewarding.

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By Cameron Carr