"BANANA STAND" YELLOW VINYL LP.
"I could burn this whole WEDNESDAY album for my crush and save myself some curatorial effort; it’s got all my tried-and-true mix tricks. Like when feedback squalls and big chords fill out a sweet top melody. Or when the lead singer sounds lazily pitch perfect, sweet when their words are scary, and muscular in their restraint. Or when tape hiss and toy keyboards blend dizzily. The Asheville sextet’s second album, I Was Trying to Describe You to Someone, centralizes noise in its delicate arrangements, letting blown out lap steel take the lead over picked patterns that swing from Swirlies to Sparklehorse to plain chaos. Frontperson and songwriter Karly Hartzman narrates Americana vignettes about faith, fear and power, set against small town scenery – billboards, tall grass, parking lots, filling stations. Her storytelling impulses make sense considering the album and one of its songs are named for Richard Brautigan shorts; the band’s self-descriptor of “countrygaze” makes sense, too (see: “Love Has No Pride (Condemned),” a Bonnie Raitt nod with time signature changes.) In high school I made a mix for a classmate, and she told me all the songs sounded too similar. But I think she got into Ayn Rand in college, which kind of invalidated her critique. And anyway, I don’t have a disc drive anymore. Guess I’m just gonna have to keep Wednesday’s cassette all to myself."
- Sadie Dupuis [SPEEDY ORTIZ / SAD13]