Artist: Chelsea Wolfe
Title: She Reaches Out To She Reaches Out To She
Genre: Gothic Rock / Ambient / Doom Metal / Trip Hop / Folk
Release Date: 9th February 2024
Label: Loma Vista Recordings
Album Review
CHELSEA WOLFE grew up in California and she grew up around music, her father was in a country music band and had his own studio at home. By age seven she had written her first poem and two years later recorded what she describes as “Casio based gothy RnB”. In her early 20s she recorded an album of “shitty breakup” songs that she later scrapped. Her first two released albums were recorded using her mum’s classical guitar that had a peg missing so the other strings were down tuned. Her voice is a soprano and some say sits within the SIOUXIE SIOUX range and she CITES NICK CAVE, HANK WILLIAMS, 20s and 30s songs and BURZUM as influences although she does not subscribe to the views of BURZUM’s protagonist Varg Vikernes. ‘She Reaches Out To She Reaches Out To She’ is CHELSEA WOLFE’s 7th album, not including live or collaborations, since 2010s ‘The Grime And The Glow’. The inspirations for this album are sobriety and a friend’s extrication from a toxic relationship, these are my thought…
‘Whispers In The Echo Chamber’ is punchy, dark and booming with some band saw style guitars. ‘House of Self Undoing’ has elongated vocals held aloft by an urgent backdrop. Just when I have come to terms with a bad situation and I am about to let it lie, I then blow air under it and keep the shit show aloft. The bass part in places reminds me of ‘AntiChrist Superstar’’ for some reason. ‘Everything Turns Blue’ is a great track! The bass sound with the stuttering accompaniment is disorientatingly sublime. All I see in my mind’s eye is smoke swirling in stop motion with faces and arms stuttering in and out of puffy whiteness.
And now we move onto ‘Tunnel Lights’ with its pleasing groove and trip hoppy motions that remind me of PORTISHEAD or MASSIVE ATTACK. There’s an easy flow to this ode about how to deal with being deified by an ex-lover, that’s what I perceive anyway, the ‘The Liminal’ shifts another form of light, that minute space between dusk and absolute darkness. Bouncy sway down in the dark whilst the vocal evokes that final moment of light before it disappears. It’s also that space when transition into a new state gestates but one is not quite ready for the leap, like the end of a toxic relationship. Death and birth can be painful and prolonged. I think this the best track on the album with its dreamy ethereal motions. ‘Eyes Like Nightshade’ passed me by initially, couldn’t get into it at all but after another listen, I decided that it has a dreamy and gloopy aura, a bit like a DEPECHE MODE / COLLIDE hybrid, ‘Salt’ perked my interest again with the smooth buttery vocals, salted butter of course and NINE INCH NAILS instrumentation. I bet a lot of tears were shed in the writing of this track. Memories, wrongs, disappointments…
‘Unseen Worlds’ turns up the drums a bit and goes tribal, urgent, impatient, restless. Like the private machinations and ruminations going on inside one’s head, ‘Place in The Sun’ has piano, sustained strings, slurred vocals, transcendence and resilience and hope. The final track ‘Dusk’ turns the lights down with a dark drone and lolling rhythmic patter, almost like a zombie walk. pitch shifter, longing sparky guitars build up rusty fires, and then an abrupt shift down to the abyss of conclusion. The fires did burn bright but fleetingly on this one.
On the whole I found this album to be a pleasing listen with a lot of interesting instrumentation going on to compliment the dark smoky, ethereal longings and reflections. On the first play, after about two tracks I knew this would be a good one and it is. If I make a comparison between this and the first album, ‘The Grime and The Glow’ from 2011 this has progressed to being more polished and fuller without the sparse echoey DIY tinniness. Not bad at all! And after a few more run throughs I started to notice other influences as well. Nine Inch Nails for one and DEPECHE MODE second. Right now, ‘The Liminal’ is playing on a loop in my head and it won’t stop, let’s see if I can get the others to do the same...
Tracklist
01. Whispers In The Echo Chamber
02. House Of Self Undoing
03. Everything Turns Blue
04. Tunnel Lights
05. The Liminal
06. Eyes Like Nightshade
07. Salt
08. Unseen World
09. Place In The Sun
10. Dusk
Line-up
Chelsea Wolfe - Vocals
David Sitek - Production
Ben Chisholm - Piano, Synth, drum programming
Brian Tulao - Guitar
Jess Gowrie - Drums, Synths, Guitar
Website
https://chelseawolfe.com/
Cover Picture
Rating
Music: 9
Sound: 9
Total: 9 / 10
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