Local Airwaves is your source for the lowdown on tracks soon to be heard on WKNC. This week’s album is “Out in the Storm” by Waxahatchee.
Waxahatchee is a band that’s seen a great deal of airplay on WKNC, and for good reason. While I’ve never personally gone into an obsession over them, plenty of other DJ’s have, and the hype is understandable. This is a solid band, with an established repertoire and following. Most hardcore WKNC listeners and indie fans are likely familiar with the band by this point, but if you aren’t, here’s a quick rundown of Waxahatchee’s sound and background.
The band was originally formed as the project of lead singer and songwriter Katie Crutchfield in 2010. In the years since formation, Crutchfield has released four albums total (including this one), and has gone on to tour with the likes of Sleater Kinney and Kurt Vile. Waxahatchee is still primarily just Crutchfield and hasn’t grown to include a concrete lineup of members outside of touring, but that hasn’t stopped Crutchfield from achieving a full and satisfying sound.
“Out in the Storm” is fairly similar in overall sound to what I’ve previously heard from Waxahatchee, and that overall sound is something akin to indie dream-pop/rock. That said, Crutchfield maintains a much more intimate sound than other players in this type of genre. Where similar musicians opt for a method of songwriting that favors spacious, detached balancing and production that creates an ethereal soundscape of dreamy, impersonal noise, Crutchfield roots the foundation of her sound in the clean, forefront tones of her voice and guitar, backed by spacious, reverb-laden atmospheric synth work and tones. Such is the case on this album. Crutchfield sticks to the fundamental structure of just a singer-songwriter with her guitar, but enhances this concept and structure with high quality production and dream-pop accentation.
And what high quality production it is; for an album of this type, the recordings are all extremely clean, well balanced, and highly polished. Not that this is unusual for Waxahatchee in particular, but it’s just another thing that helps to set Crutchfield apart from the competition. In addition to the clean, well-balanced nature of the tracks, there’s a surprising level of complexity present in the background even on tracks where the main feature is just Crutchfield’s voice and one or two guitars. Of course, it barely needs to be said, but the percussion on this album is also great. Perfectly balanced, well performed, and written with just enough complexity to sound good, but not overshadow the more interesting components on each song.
Despite the rich and complex songwriting and accentuation that Waxahatchee showcases on this album and regardless of how full and engaging the sound is, “Out in the Storm” still manages to be an extremely chill, laid back experience. Regardless of whether you’re spacing out with your headphones on while riding the bus, hanging out on the couch with the speakers blasting in your living room, or fully engaged in the art of listening to and dissecting music, this album works perfectly. Zone out or hone in, it doesn’t matter. “Out in the Storm” will keep your mind occupied and your ears happy either way.
There’s about a thousand and one adjectives to describe how appealing this album is, but I think that the core idea to express here is that Waxahatchee is a unique musical experience made excellent through refined craftsmanship. Crutchfield takes the simple concept of dream-pop and utilizes it with extreme skill to the point where even musical facets that are not wholly unique are performed to a level which outshines her competition by leagues. Waxahatchee is chill, unique, rich, atmospheric, personal and catchy, but most importantly, good. Waxahatchee is very, very good.
