Ever since it came out earlier this year, Waxahatchee's Tigers Blood has been on constant replay at home and in the What Hi-Fi? test rooms.
I don't know about you, but I'm definitely guilty of falling back to listening to the same albums and same genres I used to when growing up. So when a new release comes out these days that captures my senses and digs its heels into my brain, I can't stop listening to it. Tigers Blood is one such album, and I can't stop recommending it to others, either.
It is, quite simply, a beautiful album. Waxahatchee – helmed by singer-songwriter Katie Crutchfield who grew up near Waxahatchee Creek in Alabama – has a wonderfully melodious, soothing voice and the album is full of lovely, lush textures and gentle guitar strums. It would be futile to pigeonhole her into any genre – call it folk rock, indie folk, Americana or alternative country – the fact remains that Tigers Blood has that hazy, dreamy quality with reflective, poetic lyrics that perfectly accompany those endless, clear-blue-sky sunny days. Or the very grey, dreary, rainy days if you're in England, who has forgotten what summer is.
It's one of those albums you can put on and keep playing on repeat for hours, which I have ever since its release in March. The album's production is at once expansive and intimate, and invites you to luxuriate in the breezy, rolling and wistful-sounding melodies that become utterly mesmeric to listen to. It takes me a few listens before I even get to the lyrics; Crutchfield's honeyed voice is like liquid gold, shining through with natural warmth, and her lilting vocals and stresses on syllables you don't expect mean you end up hearing the sound and shape of the words rather than digesting the full meaning behind the lyrics. But that's perfectly fine, as those curious, unexpected stresses and vocal quirks are what hook themselves into my mind and heart.
Snippets of phrases from different songs will stand out to you or blend into each other, and you can bend each lyric to your own meaning, to whatever you're currently feeling. Her self-reflective songwriting is more earnest but no less potent; there's an honesty that feels fresh and unburdened with self-pity or torment.
"But you just settle in / Like a song with no end"
The standout track by far is Right Back To It, featuring fellow singer-songwriter MJ Lenderman who lends his vocals to the chorus (and plays guitar throughout the album). If you listen to just one song in this album, let it be this. Press play – whether you're streaming, buying the single on Bandcamp, or playing the CD – and the dreamy, gentle tune with twanging banjo will slowly sink into your skin. Lenderman's earthy vocals harmonise with and add depth to Crutchfield's sweet vocals, and the warm quality of this song is just so lovely to listen to. It's more obviously a love song, as Crutchfield herself says, and you'll be humming it to yourself for days.
The beauty of this Waxahatchee album is that you'll pick out a different song to focus on every time you listen. Burns Out At Midnight is a more blues-tinged country jangle punctuated with a meandering harmonica, while Bored has the crunchy electric guitar shine of an alt-indie-rock track with a wryness that puts me in mind of Wet Leg's Wet Leg. "What do you say / sleep all day / drive out to Lone Star Lake" is the perfect idle sing-along tune for a lazy summer/rainy day, while the uplifting nature of Crowbar belies the heartfelt, insecure tone beneath the repeated refrain of "a stupid question / I'd rather not ask it".
Tigers Blood will lull you into thinking it's an easy-going listen, but it's only when you try to sing along do you realise just how talented a vocalist Crutchfield is with her undulating singing. There's more depth and layers of subtlety hiding behind the initial simplicity. The tracks on this album, while intimately written, are sung with conviction and a resilience of spirit that sounds poised, idiosyncratic and radiating – she sounds more like she's imparting wisdom and fresh hope than wallowing in tortured poetic pain, even if there are shards of hurt and anger cracking through some songs.
"When you fail, I fail / When you fall, I fall / And it's a long way to come back down"
The other song I'd urge you to play is 365 – a stark counterpoint to the warm glow of the rest of the album. A song about codependency, 365 sears through with its raw, acoustic sparseness and her singing coming through with utter clarity. Still mesmeric and lilting, but with a clear-eyed, long-worn frustration that is all the more affecting for how precise and distinct she sounds. Her voice rises in intensity and cracks at the seams as she cries: "I catch your poison arrow / I catch your same disease / Bow low like a weeping willow / Buckling at the knees..."
It's more nakedly emotional and how she forms the words and delivers them with sharp clarity, is enchanting. The way she sings the word "unceremoniously" – a whole sentence of lyrical intent and emotion in those seven enunciated syllables – has been going round and round in my head for hours. As Crutchfield says in her Substack post about the song: "It’s a little snapshot of where I was on a particular day, trying my hardest to live one day at a time."
Regardless of how you're listening to this album – CD, hi-res download, vinyl, radio – it should evoke the same feelings and deliver her vocals and lyrics with all the nuances, dynamic depth and clarity intact. It's an album I've used many times when testing hi-fi, revelling in its gorgeously expansive soundscape, her vocals fully centre stage and intimate and layered, while the rolling rhythm flows fluidly.
But really, it's just a lovely listen. If you're looking for a new album or artist to listen to, give Tigers Blood a spin. It'll make your weekend, come rain or shine.
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