Album Review: sister. – ‘Two Birds’
Posted: by The Alt Editing Staff
Ceci Sturman and Hannah Pruzinsky, the voices behind New York City indie band sister., have spent their entire adult life together. From sharing a dorm room at St. John’s University to a recording cabin in upstate New York, the duo has spent nearly a decade orbiting each other so closely that their friendship, artistic partnership, and day-to-day lives feel almost indivisible. On their sophomore album Two Birds, sister. magnifies the intimacy that binds them, exploring the intensity of their relationship with quiet thoughtfulness and a distance from one another, giving each track the weight of a pact renewed.
That intimacy is most palpable on the title track, written after the duo moved into separate homes for the first time in nine years. Their reunion at a friend’s party immediately led to tears, and the song unfurls like a real-time journal entry: “We both cried through a party / ‘Cause we both got so scared / I need you on the last night / To write the rest of it down.” Pruzinsky and Sturman’s vocals are intimate and sweet, radiating a gentle light that grows brighter and stronger as the track continues. At its climax, guitarist Pruzinsky and bassist James Chrisman enlist a soaring guitar solo that is as intense as it is thoughtful; it’s a conversation in another language, wordless yet unmistakably clear.
The power of two is central to sister. as a band, and to Two Birds as an album: two stories etched into the same wall, two people trying to decide what distance means when the bond remains. “Two Moons” highlights the beauty of little things shared within a duo–inside jokes, sunrises and sunsets, knowing smiles, and experiences only fully understood if you were there. The album never feels exclusionary, rather allowing the listener the space to contort the songs in a way that reflects their own relationships. Tracks like “Honey” opt for a wordless chorus in favor of a swelling, distorted guitar that cuts deeper than words ever could.
Two Birds is divinely human—a study of closeness, where one plus one can still equal one, where distance tightens a bond, and where silence speaks louder than confession. Though Sturman and Pruzinsky no longer share four walls, their creative telepathy remains unbreakable, turning every listener into a quiet witness to the gentle tug between separation and permanence. Sisters not by blood but by cosmic chance, each song is wrapped in the warmth of a comforting hug and guides the listener, hand in hand, through the messy joy of a relationship still finding its shape–one that sister. is admittedly still figuring out, too.
Disappointing / Average/ Good / Great / Phenomenal
Two Birds is out July 11th.
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Jules Kelly | @snaiImaiI
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