Wednesday - Rat Saw God

The third album from North Carolina’s Wednesday comes at a time when their stock hasn’t been higher - hype bubbling over across the board; an extensive four-month tour across the US, UK and EU eagerly awaiting them. ‘Rat Saw God’ sees the band hone their seductive powers for grunge pop and country rock more acutely than ever. The heavy hitters here are coruscatingly direct. Brief-but-blistering opener ‘Hot Rotten Grass Smell’ explodes its steaming-hot noise like a jet-engine to the face. Eight-minute-plus centrepiece ‘Bull Believer’ winds and crawls before vocalist Karly Hartzman screams her lungs out - “Finish him! Finish him!” - for the song’s uproarious conclusion. Then, offsetting these come lounging country crooners ‘Chosen to Deserve’ or ‘Quarry’, each loaded with that Big Thief-ian edge of uncertain ground underfoot. Most distinctive however in Wednesday’s well-stocked armoury are those ever more diaristic lyrical narratives pushing the most benign of observations into the emotionally-charged contexts and vice versa: passing out on a couch with a nosebleed while your friend plays Mortal Kombat; someone who took so much ecstasy that he had to get his stomach pumped. While some of the stylistic variation here can feel disjointed at times, there’s plenty on offer to suggest a band on the rise, capable of rising even higher.