ALBUM OF THE DAY
Album of the Day: Wye Oak, “The Louder I Call, The Faster It Runs”
By Max Savage Levenson · April 09, 2018 Merch for this release:
Compact Disc (CD), Vinyl LP, T-Shirt/Apparel

Wye Oak have consistently found ways to push the limitations inherent in being a duo. On 2014’s Shriek, lead vocalist Jenn Wasner, typically on guitar, switched to bass, creating an icy, sparse framework for her songs. Andy Stack drums with one hand, using the other to play a wide variety of synths. (In their new touring lineup, those duties will be handled by Will Hackney.) On The Louder I Call, The Faster It Runs, Wye Oak’s music finds emotional heft in small moments and nuanced sounds. Yet it is unmistakably Wye Oak: sturdy indie pop, chock full of inventive melodies and dramatic crescendos. “Symmetry,” for instance, sneaks in a spiky synthesizer that sounds lifted from a zombie carnival. On the album’s title track, Stack incorporates skittish drums that create a perfect backdrop for Wasner’s urgent, multi-tracked vocals, which are as distorted as Dali figures. Later, her guitar solo in “Lifer” gushes to life unexpectedly, like a tidal wave.

These captivating, unsettling details serve to reinforce Wasner’s sharp portraits of malaise and self-doubt. “Oh, hard heart, do you know yourself?” she asks on “Symmetry,” echoing the opening line of 2011’s “Civilian”: “I am nothing without pretend.” If the album has a focal point, it’s “It Was Not Natural.” Over a menacing piano line that recalls Radiohead’s “A Punchup at a Wedding,” and an improbably snappy beat, Wasner discovers a treasure, “seemingly foreign, but somehow still it is familiar.” It’s a poignant summation of her unease, but it could just as easily read as the mission statement for a band that continues to evolve.

Max Savage Levenson
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