WAXAHATCHEE SETTLES IN WITH NEW ALBUM TIGERS BLOOD

KATIE CRUTCHFIELD’S LATEST PROJECT FOCUSES ON REFLECTION AND GROWTH

There are times when an artist releases something so new, so different from everything they’ve done, that everything afterwards gets viewed in the lens of this new corner they’ve turned. For Waxahatchee, Katie Crutchfield’s ever-evolving indie music project, that was 2020’s Saint Cloud. Saint Cloud marked a wonderful turn out of Katie‘s lo-fi alt-punk roots and into full tilt band-forward Americana. Here on Tigers Blood, this years follow up, Waxahatchee settles into this new homestead on an album that’s cut from the exact same cloth.

Tigers Blood cards were laid bare by releasing track Right Back To It as the lead single – yes, this is a sequel. Not only would the mellow, banjo-plucked Right Back To It fit in on Saint Cloud sonically, it would also fit the that album’s thematic heart of newly-found sobriety like a glove: “i’ve been yours for so long/we come right back to it / i let my mind run wild / don’t know why i do it.” But here on Tigers Blood it’s less certain what exactly this is about. It could be sobriety, sure – but maybe it’s just about living life? Over the rest of the album, Waxahatchee grapples with the mundane and the settled, from, yes, sobriety on 365, to self-doubt in all things love on Crimes Of The Heart. Tigers Blood washes over you, a state of mind. Tigers Blood grows and grows as it continues- from opening with the reflective 3 Sisters through to mid-album double punch of intrusive thoughts on Bored and Lone Star Lake, and finally into the self-forgiveness on the aforementioned 365, the album is more than a collection of Americana stories. Tiger’s Blood is, ultimately, the story of a person who’s looking back on the events, finding themselves and their space in the post mortem.

Sonically, Tigers Blood is firmly rooted (pun intended) in Americana, and stays a good two steps away from southern rock. Even when the music picks up in moments like the end of Bored and the uptempo tracks Evil Spawn and Crowbar, there’s a softness, a confident vulnerability, that’s always present in the music. Waxahatachee’s recording band on this record – almost entirely made up of Brad Cook on bass, Phil Cook on keys, banjo, and other miscellany, and Spencer Tweedy on drums and percussion – swings and shuffles behind Katie’s acoustic guitar across every song, giving the record a light and airy vibe that perfectly matches her signature vocals.

Joining them is MJ Lenderman on lead guitar and harmonies. MJ Lenderman was originally brought in just to duet on the lead single, but he was kept around and ended up playing on every track, and his personality acts as a foil to Katie throughout the album. On deeper listens you can really catch his distinct guitar stylings on Crimes Of the Heart and Ice Cold, and his vocals on Evil Spawn and Burns Out At Midnight, a real character throughout this record.

The album’s high note (pun not intended) is, fittingly, the title track and the final song. It starts off soft enough, with just Katie’s guitar for a few bars before the band comes in and she starts singing “you come alive in the heat, you ain’t crossing state lines / stood up like a crepe myrtle, can’t be killed or denied” MJ comes in singing harmonies on the first chorus, and the track continues to build. By the second chorus, there’s a session player’s choir, with Katie’s vocals mixed perfectly amongst them – the only time on this album that she’s not right up in front. They pray together, a lament for the meaning of life itself: “i held it like a penny i found / it might bring me something, it might weigh me down.” MJ’s now-familiar lead guitar slowly and confidently saunters through an outro solo as the track fades out, taking Waxahatchee back into the shadows.

Until you hit the repeat button, that is.