Waxahatchee - Cerulean Salt

http://pitchfork.com/reviews/tracks/17337-waxahatchee-under-a-rock/

New album streaming on NPR for some regions (not mine):

http://www.npr.org/2015/03/29/395096850/first-listen-waxahatchee-ivy-tripp

http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/04/06/first-person-singular

really like the new one, it's giving me some major 90s indie nostalgia

Great article. Love the new album. I don't see it as being as good as Cerulean Salt, but it does seem like a grower, so maybe it will get there for me in time.

wait i might like this one better than cerulean salt!

the sound of it is... more open? idk if that makes sense. sonically it reminds me of the p.s. eliot records

This album is often a stone bore and I'm trying to figure out if it's her melodic sense or if the songs suffer from malnourishment.

wait i made that claim before i got to the second half which gets very... flimsy.

gonna listen to p.s. eliot

better off listening to T.S. Eliot imo

it feels like an album of demos that never got fleshed out

idk I love this album

agree with cad but sounding like demos isn't really a negative for me in this case. i used to be a die-hard gbv fan so i've already bought into the 'just throw down a verse and a chorus or 2 and then move on' approach to songwriting

There's this annoying thing she does that sounds like she's unnecessarily pausing for breath in the middle of a phrase, kinda kills the song when it happens, her vocal lines sound ponderous more often than not.

The p4k review of the p.s. Eliot reissue brought me back to that first p.s. Eliot album for the first time in awhile, goddamn this is great stuff. This record is basically what I wish pop punk sounded like. It's so loose but stuffed with hooks.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=edl7918vuDU

old song. just, you know, good.

I've liked her in the past, but her records always end up being kind of ephemeral for me. This sounds a lot brighter, bigger and poppier than her older stuff, though, and I think its pretty great:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MBpMXuzHR3I

yeah this is great

her sister's new album is really good - I've seen reviews talking about the use of synths etc but to me it sounds like a throwback indie singer-songwriter album

that ep of early recordings from last year is incredible

I've been listening to all three of her albums recently. Much better than I think people realize.

Like, ivy tripp holds up after a quadrillion replays.

ya, i'm stoked abt the new album too

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDaccHBAGcM

New single out and it totally rules

awesome

This new one is streaming on NPR first listen and on my first listen it is their best record, or at least the best since the P.S. Eliot Sadie record which was just dynamite.

This is great ^ thanks

ditto - love this. on my third listen.

this is really good, and i wasn't prior a Waxahatchee fan

Love it. A step up from the last record for sure.

was never a huge fan before, but this new one shook me to my core

"no question" rules

As does "Hear You"

The single is terrific but the album as a whole is just so rote and straight down the line. I give every album a dutiful listen because there's the kernel of something great in there but she's really hampered by a lack of musical imagination.

I just interviewed her and she was a goddamn delight. I always worry about talking to artists I have a really string connection to that maybe it'll hurt the connection somehow, but she was so thoughtful and pleasant.

Also Great Thunder is nice little EP

that's awesome! look forward to reading the interview when it's published.

the opening line to sparks fly can sometimes, by itself, make me tear up. "i take it back i was never alone." idk if i've shared this on ilx before

I love every Waxahatchee album but this one's pretty immediately my favorite.

listened twice, haven't really absorbed the lyrics but feels like it's her sturdiest songwriting for sure, just some absolutely marvelous, effortless-sounding tunes.

particularly pleased with the fact that the song with the Fleetwood Mac-ish opening riff is called "Witches."

I think Cerulean Salt will remain my fave, but this is a great album

Really feeling this album. More polished but in a good way

will listen tonight while making pizza. i love waxahatchee so much.

Didn't see this till now...really liked the last one, I'll check Bandcamp tonight.

Her pronounced Dylanisms on the new album are charming, even if the songs are a bit samey; I tend to like her best when she aims for a bigger sound, as on the last album. "Lilacs" is the immediate standout, for me.

i think this is -- for now -- my favorite band. it's crazy, all of a sudden (last five years lol) they aren't a newish group, but a band with a formidable back catalog i can tap into whenever i want, which is everyday.

"can't do much" is one of the great love songs of all time, i think. this verse:

When you're missing me or what you see
Something wild that you think you'll never be
Something safe that you could tend to and lead
Something versatile to fill all your needs

in other hands, this would be a troubling, maybe cynical sort-of-psychoanalytic insight--that people really fall in love with an idea rather than a person. specifically, they fall in love with the idea that the beloved will compensate for the things they lack in themselves.

but she pivots. she knows this is part of love, this play of projections, but it's not something to lament. it's how people are, and the reason they can come to feel they need one another. or something like that. there's something to think about here.

Maybe I give it to you all on a dime
I love you til the day I
Love you til the day I
Love you til the day I
Love you til the day I die
I guess it don't matter why

"fire" is equally good. st. cloud is just a tremendous album.

her best

I didn't really spent too much time with this album at first because i figured it was too "happy" and "bright" for my miserable ass at the start of the pandemic, but I've really come around to it in the past month or so. It's her best since Cerulean Salt

also, katie is one of the few artists whose autograph I have and I take pride in that. (an autographed copy of ivy tripp from 2015, specifically). but ah, asking an artist for an autograph is such an awkward experience.

I thought she was hella boring for years. Then Saint Cloud impressed me. At Pitchfork she made me hear how many of those songs are variations on "Sweet Jane" chords to my ears.

I fiercely love every one of her albums. St Cloud is the least melancholy. There is hard won hope in it.

New album coming under the name Plains, a duo with Jess Williamson. First song is great.

https://www.stereogum.com/2194397/plains-katie-crutchfield-jess-williamson-problem-with-it/music/amp/

I’m not familiar with Williamson, so giving her most recent solo album a spin.

that's a great little song, thanks for the heads up

My fanboy love for Waxahatchee coupled with my unfamiliarity with Jess Williamson is making it hard to get into the new Plains album. The non-Waxahatchee songs are fine but I have an urge to hit the skip button each time. I know I’m being unfair but I haven’t gotten over that feeling yet

Yeah. Same.

«Swan Dive» still kills me on the reg

Yay she's back! I was immune to the Jess Williamson and Plains stuff, and honestly to Waxa pre-Saint Cloud, but Saint Cloud is one of my favourite records of the decade.

Excited to hear this new one - the instrumentation's a bit formulaic, but love the sound of her and MJ Lenderman's voices on the first single

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YL3iHhERWJw

Yesssssss

St. Cloud is my favorite album of the decade so far. Four years later I’m still not tired of it. New one sounds great.

St. Cloud rules. This is good, too.

Her Substack is emailed to me, which is weird--I never signed up for anything. I bought something from Bandcamp once, maybe they take your e-mail from there and just send it to you.

As Josh In Chicago indicated upthread, the Deluxe Saint Cloud is great, and my gateway, and Plains was worth the few replays it took me to get it (now I get Plains lyrics/stance-wise better than some of Saint Cloud, despite her song-by-song explanations to Pitchfork, but that's just lyrics, the music was never a problem on either alb) Go MJ!

I got chills from that, she leans into the melody like it's nothing at all

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lol CD version already sold out

holy shit, that song.

i wonder if Jake sings backing vocals on the whole album?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ouKDEpytxlw

fantastic

Just one listen but this is very good -- not as immediate/hooky as Saint Cloud, but a more mature sound, more penetrating lyrics, and may well be a better album....time will tell. Lead singles were my favorite -- "Right Back to It" and "Bored" are stunners -- but the comedown in the last four tracks or so ("Crowbar," "The Wolves") also grabbed me.

I am such a sucker for a good male/female harmony and this record's got a bunch of them

Loving it so far but not ready to compare to St Cloud, which would be unfair. That album was a grower and I expect this one will be too. But first listen, every song is a winner.

Kind of annoyed that this is out today, but Anti says they aren't shipping the copy I pre-ordered three months ago until April 5th.

huh i had no idea this was on Anti and not Merge! Still need to listen to it

pgwp otm

more songs from the territory of st. cloud but i'm not complaining bc they're great

well of all the great records released yesterday this is the one i can't stop listening to

well, what's it gonna taaaaaaaaaaaaake

The Tigers Blood title track has marvelous lyrics.

well of all the great records released yesterday this is the one i can't stop listening to

Her voice has taken a step up from saint cloud. it's really something here.

^^ otm. her singing on "burns out at midnight" and "crimes of the heart" - best in her career

"365" too

Crutchfield should cover this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C5wPqaUMlkE

Female-fronted country rock is having a moment, huh? Alternative/Indie's got Wednesday, Ratboys, Waxahatchee, Hurray for the Riff Raff, Big Thief. Pop's got Kacey and now even Beyonce. Thrilling time to be a fan.

Plus all the Margos and Maggies and Morgans, etc