We got a little teaser of how great her current live setup is (it includes members of Bonny Doon, who Katie Crutchfield called her "favorite band" on Tuesday night, and performed one of their songs with them) when she opened for Bright Eyes in August, but the full set was even better. Originally released in March, Cerulean Salt will be re-released by Wichita on July 1st.Waxahatchee was delayed in touring her excellent 2020 album Saint Cloud because of COVID, but she was finally able to hit the road in September for a run of shows with Katy Kirby. And sometimes, when someone is telling their story, it’s best to just sit back and listen. It’s a heartfelt and honest chronicle of what it means to live and to grow, told by someone who is very much in it. They make me feel all kinds of varying emotions, but I don’t know quite why. In other moments it’s the simple witnessing of someone else displaying the kind of passion and vigour you once dreamed of, before those thoughts became buried, remaining only in the way that old photographs replace the memory of the event actually happening.īuried within the record is the line “the intangible I can’t illustrate” – and that’s exactly it. I don’t need to do that because it works so much better when it’s just left as it is, as a monumental testament to the absurdity of being a human-being and growing up.Īt times Cerulean Salt feels like a slow Sunday drive through the decaying urban sprawl of a town you no longer recognise as your own. I want to write about it but I don’t want to pick it apart. In fact, I’m so lost in this record that I can’t really bring myself to view if through the eyes of a reviewer. Every single aspect of her ability pushed as far as it can go and just fuck it if it all falls apart. At times I’m reminded of Kurt Cobain and the way he could generate so much from so little. Quite where the power of the record comes from is impossible to say. And it’s that conflict between dark and light which runs throughout the entire record, that flips the emanating mood seemingly at will, which means that you never really know where you stand with the record, you can never get comfortable within it’s boundaries. II’ are angsty struts with darkening atmospheres and they contrast beautifully against ‘Lips and Links’ and the wonderfully succinct album-opener ‘Hollow Bedroom’, both of which are breezier, less insular affairs. The record eases you in almost meditatively. And always fully exposed certain lines revealing the tiniest of husky cracks, that make you think the whole thing would fall apart if she held the note for a split-second longer. And yet, at the same time, it’s heartbreaking. It comes armed with such dizzying contrasts of warmth and affliction that it could send people to war without them ever questioning why. The majority of the record is built simply around her voice and raw guitar playing, but what a voice it is. They’re sub three-minute snapshots of a life lived somewhere else, and they hold such weight, and possess such power, that even the shortest of Katie’s abstractions never feel half-finished. It’s the only reason I can give for these short sketches of pop songs being as gut-achingly affecting as they are. I say ‘sketches’ because, at times, that’s exactly how they come across. As if we could really learn something about ourselves if we can listen closely enough. But, while it’s undoubtedly about her own life, there has to be something else here something that’s always tantilisingly just out of our own grasp that keeps us coming back again and again. The collective name for the solo meanderings of Katie Crutchfield, Cerulean Salt is a startlingly personal and human collection of songs. Perhaps it’s the ambiguity that goes hand-in-hand with being lost in something greater than ourselves that left Mr Braff short of a more inspirational sound-byte, but whatever the case, if you want to hear someone who’s most definitely in it then spend a little time with Cerulean Salt, the second record from Waxahatchee. While one thinks that Zach Braff could have sexed-up the phrase a little more, the sentiment itself is a genuine one and something that most of us, as reflective and nostalgic humans, have probably experienced at some point. In the build-up to the one scene in Garden State that’s it’s still OK for a twenty-eight year old to love – you know, the bit where Natalie Portman tap-dances in front of the fire while Fair by Remy Zero plays (oh shoosh) – her character talks about about people being “in it”, which, she goes on to add, is something her mum says when someone is completely lost in the moment when telling a story that really means something to them.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |