Not often on ‘Woman With Fish’ do Feeble Little Horse sound like they know what they’re going to do subsequent. The Pittsburgh four-piece band had a rule through the artistic course of that no pre-written concepts have been allowed — they needed to give you every thing within the studio, collectively. You hear the glee of improvisation all by way of ‘Woman With Fish’, their second file; riffs sound like they’re tumbling out of the guitar and being wrangled into form.
The band marry touches of noise rock and DIY-minded pop, and the completely different sensibilities conflict in fascinating methods. One of many album’s greatest songs is its opener, ‘Freak’. It’s a playful tune with a rock swagger which wouldn’t be misplaced coming from Momma, however there’s an insistent fuzziness which preserve it feeling somewhat grubby and off-kilter. ’Heaven’, in the meantime, offers approach to a glitchy digital interlude.
Equally, with its repetitive refrain and four-on-the-floor beats, ‘Pocket’ is sort of poppy, however the homespun high quality of vocalist Lydia Slocum’s melodies make it really feel charmingly ramshackle as a substitute. These conflicts really feel partly pushed by assets and partly by selection, retaining the songs in tune with a degree of unpredictability.
Slocum writes in fragmented strains, which morph into portraits of exhaustion and disillusionment; usually, her lyrics get fairly darkish. “I can’t carry the burden of feeling stained,” she sings on ‘Steamroller’; “Lifeless canine, passenger locked / It’s too sizzling,” on ‘Candy.’ But the album’s wilful weirdness lends it some levity, making lyrics appear absurdist even when they’re decidedly simple. It’s one other pressure that helps to outline ‘Woman With Fish’ — a way that nothing holds a lot weight that it could possibly’t be taken elsewhere within the subsequent second.
Whereas that concept maybe retains these songs from being as memorable as they might be, it does often work, shaping the album right into a very nice minimize of slacker-noise. The band declare they meant to interrupt up after their 2021 debut ‘Hayday’, however determined they have been having an excessive amount of enjoyable to give up; that’s what you hear on ‘Woman With Fish’, and it makes for a way of easy but significant creativity.
Particulars
- Launch date: June 9
- Document label: Saddle Creek
