I went through a phase in high school where I decided I needed to learn how to sketch actual, honest-to-goodness people instead of the lifeless landscapes and odd still-lifes I’d been doing in art class up to then. When you’re learning to sketch people, you obviously need some models. In lieu of live ones, I resorted to photos. So for a couple of months, I was trawling the internet for whatever photos I could find of Mary Timony and Corin Tucker, and drawing them rather badly during the free workshop classes in art. This led more than one girl to remark on my apparent love affair with girls with guitars, and in hindsight they were totally right—I am a complete sucker for a woman with a guitar. If you’ve paid any attention at all to this blog, you’ve probably already noticed the pattern.

Meet Elizabeth Powell, the lead singer and guitarist for Montreal’s Land Of Talk. Land of Talk’s oeuvre is a rough-hewn variety of your usual melodic indie rock template, which requires a fair bit of guitar dexterity out of Powell. She can not only spit out a mean streak of guitar fire, but she can also belt out the lyrics too. Let me see if I can explain it without resorting to the PJ Harvey/Cat Power references: she has a voice with chameleon tendencies, urgent and tense when she’s wailing at moments like the chorus to “All My Friends,” but warm and reassuring on “Summer Special” as her voice breaks over “If I didn’t knock it then / why would I knock it now.” Her laissez-faire approach to things like staying perfectly on key only add to the charm; her voice is like an old friend whose imperfections you’ve grown into, the cracks in her voice and the intensity in her snarl. If that description didn’t do it so much for you, please see the note re: Polly Jean and Chan having a rockstar baby.

Land of Talk has been all over the place as of late, touring with Menomena and next the Rosebuds, all after playing the stuffing out of SXSW. And even though their drummer is leaving and Powell sounds a bit broken up even as he’s wishing him well, the band soldiers on. I might go see them when they pass through Toronto later this month, but honestly, I can’t keep collecting indie rock girl-with-guitar crushes like this. They’ve all completely destroyed any reasonable relationship standards I might’ve once had.