The Sounding Board
A weekly column where New Music Tuesdays live on. Conversation is encouraged in the comments.
Every Tuesday, the Sounding Board is a space for a short-ish review of a recent-ish release and conversations about new-to-you music. I’ll get things started with a write-up about a newer, likely under-heard album, and invite you to share your music musings in the comments.
Katie Crutchfield has a solid claim to being this decade’s most influential indie rock artist. It will be interesting to see what sort of ripples her new supergroup, Snocaps, makes.
Crutchfield, as much as anyone, was the vanguard of the ongoing alternative country revival that has the genre in its grips thanks to her best-known and universally lauded project, Waxahatchee. Saint Cloud, Waxahatchee’s pandemic-era breakthrough, is a gentle, sun-kissed album informed by cherished sobriety. In retrospect, it points toward the twangy, diaristic approach that’s defined many of the 2020s’ notable releases.1 It’s a sound that was further popularized — and maybe epitomized — by Tigers Blood, the 2024 follow-up to Saint Cloud, which boasts the truly massive MJ Lenderman-featuring single, “Right Back to It.”
Waxahatchee albums always came with a hefty dose of singer-songwriter confession and Southern influence.2 However, its Brad Cook-produced 2020s output marks a pronounced emphasis on both, and a departure from Crutchfield’s previous work as Waxahatchee or as part of the cult band P.S. Eliot with her twin sister, Allison Crutchfield, who played a supporting role on Waxahatchee’s comparatively raw second and fourth albums.
“Honestly, the way I look at my whole catalog is pre-Brad and post-Brad,” Katie Crutchfield told Uproxx. “The Brad era sits together and works together. And then the pre-Brad era, it was really one album at a time, and they weren’t really in any communication with each other.”
Snocaps connects those two eras by featuring the talents of both Crutchfield sisters, Lenderman and Cook. It’s a low-key cast, as far as supergroups go, but an exciting one for people who have been tuned in to guitar-driven music for the past couple of decades.
In Waxahatchee’s earliest days, it was a solo project. That era aligned with indie rock’s brief-but-pervasive fascination with surf- and garage-rock sounds. Reverb, distortion, feedback, direct lyrics and catchy melodies were having a moment. In 2010, when Waxahatchee began, releases by the likes of Wavves, the Morning Benders, the Fresh and Onlys and Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti were enthusiastically received and populated year-end lists.3 By 2012, when Waxahatchee’s debut American Weekend was released, LPs from the Dum Dum Girls, Diiv and Ty Segall played around with mid-fi retro sounds and were well received, but the genre-wide beach party was being carried away on an ebbing tide.4
Waxahatchee fit in with those trends without obviously aping them. The lo-fi, intimate and intensely insular sound of American Weekend makes sense in a world where people are upset King of the Beach by Wavves sounds a little too clean and Ariel Pink tapes are admired. Follow-up, Cerulean Salt, released in 2013, is a more conventional rock album thanks to a heavy presence from members of Allison Crutchfield’s band Swearin’.5
Cerulean Salt represented a new high-water mark for songwriting and audio quality. The latter achievement wouldn’t be bested until Katie Crutchfield and Co. ditched a DIY approach for a real studio for 2017’s Out in the Storm. Cerulean Salt remains in the conversation for best Waxahatchee album, but with the added context of time, its buzzy guitar and nods to the kind of bratty punk-adjacent music Swearin’ was bashing out sound out of step with the sound Waxahatchee would settle on a few albums, a multi-year break and embrace of sobriety later. That means it’s also at odds with present-day indie rock’s broader turn toward Americana sounds.
Maybe that will change after Snocaps, a surprise eponymous debut release. It’s not an obvious turning point or dramatic sea change, but it does bear a resemblance to the music that Katie and Allison Crutchfield were making last decade.
.
The LP, released with little warning aside from some vague social media posts that suggested collaboration could be afoot, marks a return to recording for Allison Crutchfield. Lately, she’s worked as an A&R for ever-cool record label Anti-.6 Her return coincides with a half-step toward Cerulean Salt’s louder, nervier terrain. For the first time in a long time, Katie and Allison Crutchfield made music together — and some of that music can accurately be described as rock.
It’s an interesting, albeit mild, development that’s sure to be warmly received by anyone who was pining for a less pastoral Crutchfield project. It’s also likely to be well-liked by people who like the last couple of Waxahatchee albums, people who just really liked “Right Back to It,” people who have no idea who the Crutchfields are and any members of an unspecified fifth group of people who accidentally encounter Snocaps. It’s just that kind of instantly comfortable album, and it provides an unchallenging throughline for the Crutchfield Extended Universe.
While Snocaps offers a level of bounce and urgency that’s absent in Katie Crutchfield’s recent work, it retains a lot of latter-day Waxahatchee’s warmth and gentle touch. That makes sense in light of the album’s personnel. It seems like it’d be hard to return to the “pre-Brad era” when Cook is a load-bearing member of the quartet and produced the album.7 In the end, there are really only a couple of tracks that would make any sense on a Swearin’ album, but just about everything could slot somewhere into the Waxahatchee catalog.
Each Crutchfield took on lead vocalist and principal songwriter roles for about half of the album — 13 tracks make a clean divide impossible, and Lola Crutchfield, Allison’s daughter, cops a lead vocals credit on the album’s final track. While the voices are distinct, they’re seldom alone, and a crisscrossing vein of simple harmonies runs through the album. While listening, it’s fun to think about the way their respective tics manifest, compare, contrast and complement. Typically, Katie’s songs, like “Angel Wings,” lean most heavily into the molasses-sweet country sounds and g-dropping lyrics. The slightly more driving songs, like “Heathcliff” and “You In Rehab,” come from Allison.8 Her voice as a singer and songwriter has always struck a little closer to Louise Post than the mark of her sister’s raspier, more forceful tone. Every word that Katie Crutchfield sings sounds true. Every word that Allison Crutchfield sings sounds cool. Snocaps are at their best when there’s maximum cross-pollination in approach.
A prime example: “Cherry Hard Candy,” a jangly seesawing song that stands as the album’s finest moment and among either Crutchfield’s most purely enjoyable songs.9 It bursts out of the gate with a subtly stuttering riff and vocal duties shared so closely, it’s tough to discern who’s in the driver’s seat. By the time Lenderman, who is also credited with drumming and bass on the track, is teasing out some high lonesome notes from a 12-string guitar, the jig is up, and it’s clearly a Katie song. However, by that point, it’s also clear that the song received a massive lift from Katie’s band and family members. It’s heartwarming and wholesome to hear Snocaps’ members swap instruments, slide into supporting roles and help each other make pleasant music throughout the album.10 It’s more nourishing than thrilling, but it’s evident no one involved set out to make a flame-throwing LP.
Whether Snocaps is a delightful, low-stakes one-off or a sign of more music to come from any of the players involved is unclear. In the wake of the album’s release, Snocaps have teased both impending live shows and an indefinite hiatus. Only the former can be considered good news. However, there is now nearly two decades of evidence to suggest that the Crutchfield sisters won’t stay separated forever. Maybe their next collaboration will try to really tear the roof off.
About the writer
Ben Hohenstatt
Ben Hohenstatt is an Alaska-based dog owner who moonlights as a music writer and photographer.
For more information, consult your local library or with parental permission visit his website.
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The Sounding Board
A weekly column where New Music Tuesdays live on. Conversation is encouraged in the comments.
The Sounding Board
A weekly column where New Music Tuesdays live on. Conversation is encouraged in the comments.
The Sounding Board
A weekly column where New Music Tuesdays live on. Conversation is encouraged in the comments.
The Sounding Board
A weekly column where New Music Tuesdays live on. Conversation is encouraged in the comments.
The Sounding Board
A weekly column where New Music Tuesdays live on. Conversation is encouraged in the comments.
Department of
Conversation
What did we watch?
The Kids In The Hall, Season Four, Episode Nine
QUEEN’S BUTTOCKS REVEALED
“This is where I came to get away from my hectic life in the south. Whatever it is I do.”
“Second of all, I’m not fat. So fuck off, frogs.”
“He only eats Lucky Charms and beer.”
Ah, I suppose you could easily have a Buddy Cole movie.
“First, I go into town, I find me a woman, and then I make love to her. Then I have my first hot bath in three months.”
“A word of advice, Francoise, if you do not mind. Have the hot bath first, then make love to the woman.”
“Well, you know, Francoise, I always wanted to learn French.”
“Well, which way you facing? Alright, you got the little red button–”
Mark McKinney does a passable Australian impression that occasionally devolves into Michael Caine.
Rebel and Sinbad doing their bizarre little run killed me.
“Flying turns me on, Rebel.”
“What?! She’s two birds?!”
I can’t be bothered writing out McKinney’s monologue about being dragged off by attractive men in a story full of homoerotic undertones, but it made me laugh.
“Last time I saw you, you were abroad. Nothing’s changed.”
“It was so cold in there, the flasher had to describe himself!”
Live… Book Signing… Thing – Mark Webber, guitarist of Pulp, has a book out covering his unusual-ish progression from fan to road manager / fan club president to member of the band. Much as I love Pulp’s music, I don’t know much about the band members (certainly not the ones who aren’t Jarvis) so I was unaware of this “fan who got lucky” story and it’s quite a fun one. The event was at my regular Monday-night cinema and he showed some unseen behind-the-scenes band footage in between interview / Q&A segments and it was a fun evening, if not anything revelatory. He seemed like a nice, down-to-earth guy rather than the kind of natural storyteller you sometimes get in these situations but there were some funny stories and the montage of ridiculous TV appearances that made up one of the video segments was hilarious. I also quite enjoyed the completely un-slick bit at the start where he struggled to deactivate his screensaver and accidentally opened Excel, I have never seen an empty spreadsheet on a large cinema screen before.
Looney Tunes! On Tubi! An excellent block of cartoons – “Duck Season” and its escalation is famous for a reason – except the Pepe Le Pew one. I find “le purr, le meow” amusing inherently because the French language and culture itself is funny – fuck you, tell me you wouldn’t laugh if you met a Frenchman in 1930 and heard him speaking first without knowing France exists – but the cat frantically trying to get away from an implacable predator is simply not.
The Practice, “Do Unto Others” – Eugene defends a rabbi accused of rape. Which is made ever harder by the facts of the case, by everything Eugene learns about the rabbi and his temple’s board of directors as it becomes clear it really was rape. As a character study of Eugene – and as a spotlight on Steve Harris – this works very well. But why did the case have to be about a rabbi? I think it’s fair to say that Kelley is fascinated by Jews given the number of Jewish characters he’s created over the decades. I am sure that there’s no intent to say that only Jews do this kind of thing, more likely it was just more interesting than the same situation with Methodists or Baptists. But it kind of makes me itchy nonetheless. Michael Tucker plays the rabbi, George Wyner the chairman of the synagogue board.
Frasier, “The Great Crane Robbery” – On Mary Tyler Moore, the running gag was that the station manager kept changing. On Frasier, once Kenny arrived, the gag changed to “there’s another new owner.” This time around it’s a newly rich techie who lacks any sort of cultural knowledge or taste. So Frasier takes him under his wing, only to find that the techie merely imitates Frasier and copies his apartment precisely (minus Martin and his chair). This one just ends with Frasier beside himself when Architectural Digest decides to do a cover story on the techie’s apartment! We never hear of this new owner again, or of any of the promises of a syndication deal. But it has its moments, and the techie is played by a pre-Firefly Alan Tudyk with absolutely no guile whatsoever (but with red hair).
Quartet — This was ok. In Jazz Age Paris, Isabelle Adjani is the wife of a hustling art dealer who gets arrested for passing stolen goods. Destitute, she moves in with acquaintances H.J. and Lois Heidler (Alan Bates and Maggie Smith), a rich art dealer/impresario and his painter wife. Of course the Heidlers both know the score, but it’s not clear at first to Adjani or her poor sap husband in prison who is just glad that his wife has a roof over her head.
The problem I had is that you could understand Adjani’s character realizing what she needed to do to pay the rent, sure. But she legitimately yearns for Heidler and is distraught when he doesn’t visit her often enough. This is hard to credit. H.J. isn’t dashing or kind or wise. He’s rich, and that’s enough to get someone in the sack, but not enough to get them to fall for him. Or is it? Well, if it is, it’s elided in the film.
The most interesting things about this movie are two behind the scenes notes. First, Maggie Smith (who is the best part of this picture, alternatively sniping at Adjani and trying and failing to keep it cool in front of her husband) was in a completely different movie also called Quartet made decades later. Also, it turns out this was based on a true story, one about which all four principles wrote novels or memoirs.
What did we listen to?
”Yellow Moon”, The Neville Brothers
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L1Y6W1FaSVQ&list=RDL1Y6W1FaSVQ&start_radio=1&pp=ygUceWVsbG93IG1vb24gbmV2aWxsZSBicm90aGVyc6AHAQ%3D%3D
Continuing my trek through random individual songs on my Liked playlist. This was one that I heard on Bob Dylan’s Theme Time Radio Hour, which led me to track down the whole album (endearingly, Dylan does not bring up that they do a pretty bitchin’ cover of “The Ballad of Hollis Brown”). By the way, I’ll clarify that when I do this, I look up both the chords of that song specifically and the chords in the key of the song.
Style and Form
This is incredibly Eighties in its style, with its hazy production and filters (for lack of a better word) over everything, but its basic technique and fundamental songwriting are both things you’d hear all the way back in the Fifties. This ends up making it feel, in a good way, like something not quite rooted in any particular world, especially here in 2025. Often, synths are trying to sound real; this saxophone sounds unreal, but even without looking it up, I know it has to be. It also has, as we’ll see, a completely bonkers structure.
Melody and Harmony
Consistently, what sounds complicated to a layman is different from what actually is complicated; I find this consistently true in music, where what I assume is complicated harmony is actually usually about four or five chords at most, and that very much applies here. The song is in G minor and isn’t doing anything conceptually far-out; the tune is also pretty simple.
Intro
This sets the pace with its languid opening, ‘compensated’ for with the saxophone doing those cool little trills. Interesting that what it’s doing musically doesn’t really show up in the rest of the song.
Verse
These are incredibly expansive for a pop song; the harmony isn’t anything like the blues, but it has the breadth and pace of that genre (compounded by the song having an incredible four verses before getting to a chorus). Love the little slides the guitar does inbetween Aaron Neville singing. The bass also sounds incredibly harsh, even judgemental when it takes our attention, as if contemptuous of the narrator. The instruments in general are edgy and acidic as the narrator is asking for help, as if the universe itself is against him.
The first verse after the first chorus is purely instrumental, and Charles Neville’s sax sounds much more emotionally open than his brother’s vocals (not at all a criticism) – in fact, it sounds positively panicked and increasingly so.
Chorus
The song takes a sharp turn to Bb Major here; that would be III of g minor, and it definitely sounds like an intensification of mood as opposed to changing of subject, at least before we quickly retreat back to g minor. It also has a complicated (for this song) shift in moods before returning to the safe anxiety of the i chord.
Refrain
This sounds significantly less like a refrain than you’d think; it’s almost but not quite identical to the verse, substituting a dm7 for a D7 and nothing else, and this exclusively shows up after each Chorus.
Outro
This is either an instrumental verse or an instrumental refrain – I think it’s the latter.
Some Final Thoughts
As always, I find counter to popular opinion that analysis helps me enjoy art more than I did before. I had to listen to this over again for each section of this analysis, and was delighted at how my search for new details to write about compounded with my increased appreciation for what I already wrote about. This was my goal with this project, more than any other – to appreciate music even more.
For example, while I always noticed the coolness of this song, I never noticed how insane the structure was, and the way this implies a narrator increasingly volatile and out of control. The chorus and especially refrain show him entering threatening territory, and he never really seems to quite get back.
Interestingly, I doubt I’d be able to write about pop music like this if I hadn’t spent all that time writing about classical music, trying to lock down the ‘narrative’ of each piece.
“I find counter to popular opinion that analysis helps me enjoy art more than I did before.” Yeah, you’re right on the money, here. When it comes to art, understanding the “how” is as important as “what” it’s saying, or what it’s about.
80s production really sticks out, doesn’t it? I think it’s top-down management, perhaps. Digital is easy to dial in, and sounds good on the radio, or on down-market stereos. But you lose the dynamics of each instrument, and even a good mix tends to sound kinda hard and flat.
The use of 50s technique/fundamentals is really what the mainstream took from punk music. Any song by, say Sex Pistols, has a sturdy guitar riff (going back to the so-called basics of rock). Get rid of the provocative lyrics and there’s your model for the 80s.
In “Yellow Moon”, I definitely hear traces of the atmosphere of “Spanish Moon” by Little Feat and “Cajun Moon” by J.J. Cale. The structure is blues theme/variation. As you point out, there’s simmering tension throughout, aided by the strange tangents of the song.
1001 Albums, etc.:
Motorhead – No Sleep ‘Til Hammersmith: this list is definitely way more into live albums than I am. This was fine but it didn’t really tell me anything that the other Motorhead album on the list didn’t already. It’s quite funny how many of their songs are “what if we do Ace of Spades again?” and I don’t even mind because it rules.
Soft Cell – Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret: RIP Dave Ball! Strong, dramatic, sleazy synthpop here – I’ve heard this before but it’s been a while. They have some really great songs, and I got a little pre-emptively annoyed that the incredible “Say Hello, Wave Goodbye” will show up on the list again in ridiculously watered-down form sometime in the late 90s.
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark – Architecture & Morality: a long-time favourite, if I was to make a top ten list of songs from the whole list then I suspect “Souvenir” would make it on. Gorgeous melancholy synthpop and it’s a shame it’s their only album on the list.
Brian Eno & David Byrne – My Life in the Bush of Ghosts: never heard this before and I was surprised how much more it felt like an Eno album than a Byrne album. Pretty cool but not really what I expected.
Black Flag – Damaged: hardcore punk will never be one of my genres but I definitely admired the gnarly guitar sounds and energy here, very enjoyable.
X – Wild Gift: this kind of punk is definitely more for me, I like the surfy / twangy guitar elements and shared male / female vocals a lot.
The Psychedelic Furs – Talk Talk Talk: such an odd singer, he sounds like an old man trapped in a young body. “Pretty in Pink” is a great song, otherwise this was mostly just Pretty Good.
The Human League – Dare!: an easy 10/10, one of the best synthpop albums ever made. I’m not convinced the album title has always had an exclamation mark though, it’s not there on the cover, when did that sneak in?
—
Blank Check, Inside Llewyn Davis – is Rachel Zegler actually the best Blank Check guest? She’s so much fun. Also is this the best Coen Brothers movie? I think it might be slowly becoming my favourite, although the competition is absurdly strong.
Zegler having a dog named Lenny Bernstein was adorable though he disrupted the show it seems.
Disrupted, enhanced, maybe it can be both?
My favorite Coen as well.
Decided to go all the way back with musical history and listen to Show Boat, probably the first official book musical in that it tells a coherent story all the way through and is more focused on drama than pure comedy. Some great songs including at least two standards, “Old Man River” and “Bill.” I loved the former as a kid and find both deeply sad, all about enduring in the face of implacable forces (nature and love respectively). I don’t totally grasp the plot though I suspect the racial politics doesn’t hold up to modern scrutiny, which makes sense given that it’s about 100 years old and even South Pacific, probably one of the woker musicals of the era, is pretty racist.
Been going through the Important Cinema Club archives via Patreon which is fun and I enjoy their scraping the bottom of Kevin Smith’s trash barrel. Also started a popular horror story podcast, Nocturnal Transmissions, produced by Specter Vision Radio which also now covers Weird Studies.
Nath’s “Best Songs Not Mentioned” Playlist
After all these weeks of albums, I have to admit that it was nice to return to playlists. Is this like my love of short story anthologies, where I appreciate the abundance and regular shifts of tone and style? Possibly. Anyway, I grinned all the way through this, and it will definitely be in my regular rotation. The fact that a shuffle could conceivably bring me from the irresistible, funny bop of “Combination Pizza Hut and Taco Bell” to the sincere and moving “When U Love Somebody” to William Shatner’s “Common People” to “The Rat” is the essence of joy. Full of highlights, including unexpected ones–I didn’t know how much I’d like “Atlas,” and the answer is: a fuckton. It’s a shame that I had to go to YouTube for the superb, catchy “Toe Jam,” but into every life a little rain must fall.
Now into Nath’s top 10 albums of the 2000s!
Guitar Romantic, The Exploding Hearts
I love how colorful this feels, like bright Day-Glo on black. This is a little bit of a boisterous stylistic throwback, and I love that about it. I want to go listen to it again right now.
Mass Romantic, The New Pornographers
Main highlights: “Letter from an Occupant,” “Mass Romantic,” and “To Wild Homes.” The tone of this is alternately summery and autumnal, which suits the genre–wistful emotions delivered with verve. Slick and stylistically cohesive, forming its own kind of whole. “Breakin’ the Law” is a strong closing, with sing-shouting: it becomes moving, shaking things up and providing a feeling of community and live performance even when I’m listening alone.
Twin Cinema, The New Pornographers
Love the aching, swooping, grand beauty of “The Bleeding Heart Show,” the sublime weirdness of “Jackie, Dressed in Cobras,” the beautiful “Sing Me Spanish Techno” (which feels like it encapsulates the overall appeal, especially in the contrast between the tone and the words), and the almost mythological pull of “Broken Beads.”
Franz Ferdinand, Franz Ferdinand
This kept me company on a drive back from a sad trip, and I was glad to have something so lively and attention-grabbing. It made me feel better to get swept up in songs like “Auf Asche” and “Take Me Out,” and–as with Franz Ferdinand’s previous album on the list–I appreciate the queerness, or at least unabashed, line-blurring allyship, of songs like “Michael.”
The Sunlandic Twins, Of Montreal
I think this is, by a cheat, the only album on the list I’ve listened to before in its entirety, but–and here’s the cheat–it’s because Nath recommended it back when I first asked for recommendations. Anyway, this is an incredibly beautiful work: I love the tunes, but I’m also a lyrics person, and so many specific lines of this pop out at me. I too want to sometimes pretend I’m in Antarctica. I think my favorite song this time around was “The Party’s Crashing Us,” which captures feelings I’ve never had so convincingly and vividly that I do have them on the “character’s” behalf, at least for the duration of the song.
Guitar Romantic is such a classic!
Woo-hoo!
Wow, I decided to finally get back to you with my comments on the top ten, and by some miracle, the first column I guessed would be the one with this comment was correct.
Guitar Romantic – Pretty much what I think of as the ideal of “pop-punk.” That word means a lot of things, but here, it’s basically power-pop melodies and harmonies (and themes) with a much more aggressive and noisy style. The Exploding Hearts were brilliant; we lost so much to that awful tragedy.
Not sure exactly what I have to say about the New Pornographers at this point. “Mass Romantic” and especially “Letter From an Occupant” are peak Neko Case for me. Somehow I discovered “The Slow Descent Into Alcoholism” from some combination of AllMusic and Audiogalaxy way back when this album came out, but never really got into the band for a couple more years at least.
“Centre for Holy Wars” and “Execution Day” are personal favorites. The NP’s (heh) always seemed like one of the bands most capable of speaking to me from the other side, and those are the two best examples on this album.
Twin Cinema is a little more mature, maybe; “Jackie, Dressed in Cobras” and “Sing Me Spanish Techno” are the two highlights for me (and unlike Mass Romantic where I split these two categories among two songs, both the ones that are my favorites as songs and as speaking to me from the great beyond). “Use It” is a poppy classic and was even cemented as such by The Office. “The Bleeding Heart Show” is another highlight.
I’m not sure how to separate the rest– “The Jessica Numbers,” is a fun maybe spy story, I dunno. “Falling Through Your Clothes” and its strange echo-ish chorus gives it a quality the other tracks don’t have. “Streets of Fire” is another great one; I never really vibed with Destroyer, but Dan Bejar’s NPs tracks are often among my favorites. And “These Are the Fables” is another great Neko Case showcase. Marking the journey of our friends complete.
Huh, all of their first three albums are named after the first track.
Franz Ferdinand is basically the perfect example of whatever it is– that dance-punk / post-punk revival hybrid. It’s groovy and so much fun, and it’s got so many perfectly angular riffs. And “Take Me Out” is obviously the well-known classic here, but the bombast of “Jacqueline” might be my favorite. Underrated: “This Fire” and “40 Ft.”
Thankfully, I already wrote so many words on The Sunlandic Twins that I don’t have to write any more.
Continued my Deftones listen-through ahead of seeing them live last Saturday.
Diamond Eyes
This was the first album after a car accident in 2008 left Chi Cheng in a near-coma for the rest of his life. This was a tragic loss. Chi was a founding member of the band, a large personality, and a great bass player who only got better with each album. In many ways, the band never got over him and they shelved an album they had started with him named Eros, starting over from scratch. Some of those tracks have surfaced in different forms over the years (I heard one of them, “Smile”, live in 2019, unaware of what it was), but the project was too close to and hurt by the accident to be completed. Some fans still wonder what might have been with that one, but for me, it’s always been too much to ask them to linger on. Chi died in April 2013.
Despite this very heavy emotional load, not to mention the compressed production after scrapping the album, Diamond Eyes might just be their best album. The only thing holding it slightly back is that the final three tracks are only very good and don’t quite flow with the rest of the album. But the album starts on a high and doesn’t let up for long while. The opening titular track starts with one of their crunchier riffs and some beautiful, caressing vocals, for one of their strongest-ever songs, even before the mother of all breakdowns. “Royal” and “CMND/CTRL” follow with a great metal banger keeping the energy high and the tempo fast.
“You’ve Seen the Butcher” turns the speed down but the horniness way the fuck up, with a rare bluesy riff from Carpenter that the drums fill in beautifully, and Chino at his most vocally sexier. The slowdown continues though the shoegaze “Beauty School”, and new bassist Sergio Vega announces himself with an elastic riff to open “Prince”, which soon turns into one of their most dramatic bridges.
The influence of the post-White Pony albums is strong, but the sound has been refined beautifully, with a clarity that they never boasted this much. “Rocket Skates” is a perfect example: a classic rock metal riff, Chino’s open seduction on the verses, jumping into a chorus (“Guns! Razors! Knives! Woooooo”) that’s made to be shouted out by an arena, sirens going out in the bridge, and drums that never stop. It’s the most pure fun song they’ve ever made.
And then there’s “Sextape”.
I’m really at a loss with that one. It’s their best power ballad, and it sounds like nearly nothing else they’ve done. It’s yearning, and ecstatic, and exuberant, and sad, and it brings tears to my eyes every time. looks sideways at “infinite source” in Private music It’s a gem, and one that makes me believe in music, and people, and transcendence, more than any of their tracks.
Maybe following up on that is why the tail end of the album doesn’t quite cut it, but again, there’s nothing wrong with those tracks (they have a clear The Cure influence, and listening to them this time it’s not hard to hear U2 on them either). It’s just that some things are nearly impossible to follow. Fortunately, their next albums would do an admirable job of it, though they’re not without their occasional issues.
Koi No Yokan
A strong, mature album that follows on the Diamond Eyes template and reaches some very high highs. Not as strong on the whole, since several tracks are very straightforward, but the ones that break out really stand out. “Swerve City” opens things with a bang, a great bouncy riff giving way to soaring verses and a stadium-wide chorus. “Romantic Dreams” continues the softer singing and buildups that will be this album’s strongest suit, as does “Entombed”, a heartfelt ballad that builds on the beauty of “Sextape” from the previous album, with a beautiful lead riff and just a little heaviness on the bridge. “Tempest” does something similar, starting with a minimal pulsing and ending with a full band piece. “Rosemary” is an even better example, adding an intro, bridge, and outro so spacey you can feel comets fly by.
The more traditional rock/metal tracks don’t stand out after “Swerve” but they’re far more memorable than I remembered. “Gauze” has a strange riff on the verses that feels lifted from the mush of the first two albums, and “Goon Squad” has a fun, new-waveish chorus. “What Happened to You?” ends things on a different note, with a soft but slinky Grunge bass line and a chorus that doesn’t quite rise so much as it stirs. A fascinating exit off an interesting album, if not quite a favorite.
Gore
A solid album but a definite step back, as few of the tracks really stand out or become memorable. I remembered this being mushy and scrambled like the first two albums, but on this listening, that’s not the case at all. It’s firmly on the Diamond Eyes/Koi No Yokan mold, but without the immediate impact of their previous work.
“Prayers/Triangles” is a strong opener, a soft metal track with dramatic choruses. “Hearts/Wires” is another highlight (punctuation marks on the title are apparently a sign of quality in this album) with many of the same qualities. “Phantom Bride” also stands out through some beautiful pizzicato guitar, a soaring chorus, and a rare, soulful solo, courtesy of Alice in Chains’ Jerry Cantrell.
Elsewhere, they struggle to stir much emotion, with some brilliance showing up in spurts, like an upbeat riff shaking up “Acid Hologram”, or some vocal play in “Geometric Headress”. Oddly, Carpenter’s guitar often sounds like he’s lifting styles from other bands, most notably in the fun, Iron Maiden-like “Pittura Infamante”. This results in the most oddball, awkward album in their discography. My immediate feeling on this listen is that they were nearing the late-career slump most long-running bands face, a pretty natural, perhaps unavoidable turn, especially 20 years in. Fortunately, their two albums after this prove it was only a passing thing.
Ohms
This album is so good. On paper, it’s not very different from the Diamond Eyes to Gore run, but it flows beautifully, all the band members complement each other perfectly, and every track has some very strong hook in it. It also has the absolute best bass lines since the Chi era, which makes Sergio Vega's departure a couple of years later a bigger bummer than it already was. He takes over in the outro for the magnificent "The Spell of Mathematics", initiates the barrage in "Radiant City", and grounds the slow burn of "Headless" beautifully.
The album starts with "Genesis" (heh), a banger that showcases every instrument and commands the listener's attention from the get-go. "Ceremony" introduces a slower tempo, alternative rock riffs, and another elastic bass line. The middle section of the album, consisting of the aforementioned "Spell", the gorgeous "Pomeji" with its extended synth outro, and "This Link is Dead" creates an incredible suite, a transporting set that always feels like a journey away somewhere.
The title track that closes the album is another banger, a mixture of rare, major key, classic rock/punk guitar riffs from Stef, a propulsive bass and drums, and Chino's vocals reaching for transcendence. It's a very strong collection of songs, proof a band resurgence, right on time for a new wave of popular appreciation, across multiple generations of fans. Fortunately, all of these points would continue bearing true with their most recent release.
private music
Just a few months old, and it’s already turning into a favorite. There’s a clear template, as there has been since Diamond Eyes, and there’s not the same variety from the White Pony to Saturday Night Wrist era, but what there is is rock solid songwriting, top marks from every performer and great hooks on pretty much every track.
Opens with a great two-punch, with “my mind is a mountain” starting with a muscular riff and evolving into a soaring, emotional riff, while “locked club” announces itself as a fighting statement, and introduces swagger back to Chino’s emotional palate.
The early highlight, and indeed the album highlight in my opinion, is “infinite source”, an incredible, pop-infused track with an openly emotional riff from Stef, morphing with some vertigo-inducing chords that would be unmooring if not for Chino’s soothing singing. The lyrical theme here is the fans, the life on the band, the endless love between the two, and the passing of time and the looming end. It’s as open a song as they’ve ever made, and an incredibly moving one. Like “Sextape” back in Diamond Eyes, it moves me to tears every time. (I also happened to hear it first just a few days before learning my wife was pregnant with our first child, and when I already suspected it, so it created a strong association in me that I don’t think I’ll ever shake up.)
“cXz” is another great rock construction. “i think about you all the time” is this album’s ballad, a waltzy song with watery guitars, tinged by melancholy and longing (for family, for lovers, but also the ghost of Chi lingers), and one great, open vocal hook after another. “milk of the madonna” is a fun rock banger with electronic flourishes, further proof of Frank Delgado’s often-invisible but ever-present input on their sound.
The album closes with “cut hands”, another great fight song, “~metal dream”, a strange song with a great chorus, and the final track, the even stranger “departing the body”, where Chino plays around with a vocal register he’d never ever been close to.
On the whole, it’s a great album that sees them confidently work their sound without missing a beat, with little of the evident mid-career strife that plagued them in the 2000’s, and without ever showing signs of slowing down or running out of life. I’m very curious to see where they go from here, as they could do another one in this vein, or they could bring back the electronic tracks, trip hop beats, death metal riffs, and other diversions from the post-White Pony run. Either way, I can’t wait to hear it, and hearing their discography start-to-finish was very rewarding. Up next: Dia de los Deftones last Saturday at Petco Park.
Absolutely going to check this one out, as “Right Back to It” is indeed one of my favorite songs of recent years and high on my list of personal favorite songs ever.
Year of the Month update!
This November, you can write about any of these movies, albums, books, et al from 2018!
Nov. 7th: Gillian Nelson: A Wrinkle in Time
Nov. 9th: Cori Domschot: Book Club
Nov. 10th: Bridgett Taylor: Aquaman
Nov. 12th: Ben Hohenstatt: Bark Your Head Off, Dog
Nov. 14th: Gillian Nelson: Christopher Robin/Mary Poppins Returns
Nov. 21st: Gillian Nelson: Ralph Breaks the Internet
Nov. 28th: Gillian Nelson: Legend of the Three Caballeros
And in December, we’ll be taking pitches on anything from 1948, like these movies, albums, and books.
Dec. 20th: Lauren James: The Lottery