“Will you miss me when I’m not around.”
Transporting you into their own, lovely haven are the dynamic duo of Widowspeak. In their upcoming sixth studio album The Jacket, the indie rock group provide a blissful experience. Taking you on what feels like a summer drive, it’s time to lay back and enjoy what they have in store.
Second and first released singles “While You Wait” and “Everything Is Simple” open the album in serene fashion. Sporting soft-spoken flute trills, it wears the feeling of summer breeze on its sleeve. They allow you to close your eyes and simply breathe, as the percussive bass elements drive things forward steadily, letting melancholy shed through the melodies. Topped off with exasperated vocal work from Molly Hamilton, this duo of singles is a phenomenal choice for the duo of artists for taking a step into their world.
Upholding the tempo are “Salt” and “True Blue”. Both are expressed in the stylistically calm and relaxing fashion that is expected from Widowspeak. However, they resonate lyrically to a high degree (personally, at least). Doting on passages such as “Still tasting salt, but I wouldn’t say I’m happy for you” and “I feel something when I hear your name in passing”, the soothing yet sorrow-filled vocals bleed into its every fibre. Accompanied with the ambient and atmospheric background, it makes these two tracks emotive hard hitters. If you were still closing your eyes from the previous two tracks, you might honestly open to some tears.
Title track “The Jacket” turns the page on the first half of this story. Guitarist Robert Earl Thomas makes great use of tonality and pacing through-out, fashioning isolated leads, donning enough distortion for grit, and laying out a properly structured foundation. I absolutely love the usage of overdrive in the beginning of the track, breathing life in with some southern twang. “The Jacket” in itself is instrumentally sound to telling its own story.
Switching gears onto the second half, “Unwind” opens in a stranger fashion when compared to the first half. Utilizing an almost contemporary style, it fronts many different textures than previously seen, highlighting the usage of keys. Relying heavily on accented rhythms, it brings a different context and feel to the album. Albeit feeling different, it almost comes across as somewhat lost. It doesn’t bring as much to the playing field as much as the previous seen tracks do. Great as a standalone, contextually lacking.
Setting everything back on track is “The Drive”. Bringing together both the entrancing cleans that I’ve adored and forging it with ecstatic energy, this is my personal standout from the non-singles. It completely encapsulates what I was looking for from the indie duo. Everything flows neatly and uniform, from the way the percussive foundation is laid out to the harmony that the melodies create. It exudes summer drives on the countryside with the window down, and I’m here for that.
Following an elated performance, “Slow Dance” does exactly what’s intended of it. It’s not a perfect display of an actual slow song (not that the title was meant to be literal), but it definitely slows the pace in comparison to its predecessor. Highlighting more lead guitar centric tones, it throws the balance of the mix somewhat off, feeling somewhat overbearing. If the solos were dialed back to what was seen previously, it would feel more welcoming.
Moving on to “Forget It”, it works as a palette cleanser to what I wanted the “Slow Dance” to bring. Accented neatly in the way notation is played. Nice and refined. It doesn’t provide any elements that are too overpowering and simply presents itself as rustic Widowspeak. Mixing a steady entrancing beat with hypnotic lyricism, mini melodies sprinkled around, leads to a great result.
Finally ending off on “Sleeper”, it strikes me as odd. Similar to “Unwind”, it focuses on the wrong direction and lacks in sonic contextuality. Wearing the same 3 note melody on its sleeve throughout the entire song, it almost ends up feeling like droning on repeat listens. If they could abolish the use of that instrumentality and find a way to discretely place the melody instead of fore fronting it to the point where it feels grating, I would be keener. Would be a great song with those changes, but ending on that note slightly sours things.
Widowspeak provide a surreal listen-through with The Jacket. There are contextual moments where things don’t fit or mesh in as well as they should. However, it still encompasses a great selection of tracks. It feels straight out of the Life Is Strange series, something near and dear to my heart. For that, I will cherish this album with the recognition it deserves. Some stellar work.
The Jacket is available via Captured Tracks on March 11th.
8/10