Waxahatchee
Tigers Blood
Anti-
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Saint Cloud (2020) was a revelation. Since its release two weeks into the COVID lockdown, no new record has spoken to me as vividly. Bucolic and centered, Waxahatchee’s fifth LP is a post-sobriety statement of reinvention, a record that creates a beautiful world for you to inhabit.
I hold Saint Cloud in such high regard that I could not even set expectations for Katie Crutchfield’s new release, Tigers Blood. I did not think that the Saint Cloud concept could be improved upon, but I also did not want to hear her leave its unparalleled sonic space. The furthest thing from my mind was the possibility that Tigers Blood could point out the constraints of Saint Cloud, connecting to its sonic core while complicating its concept. That’s what we’ve got.
The seeds for this pivot were laid on the Saint Cloud tour, when Waxahatchee reimagined songs from her darker records to fit the bright aesthetic of the new release. “Recite Remorse,” the emotional gutter of 2017’s Out In The Storm, re-emerged over a backdrop of acoustic guitars and a propulsive backbeat. The song maintained its edge but sounded less devastated. This is the spirit of Tigers Blood: the sunlit sound of Brad Cook’s production on Saint Cloud, but with sharper tones, faster tempos, and lyrical edges. While Saint Cloud reinvented Waxahatchee for the sake of a redemption narrative, Tigers Blood shows how her older sound, and older self, are still part of her even amidst that reinvention.
“Bored,” the record’s second single, is the best representation of how Tigers Blood merges sounds from across Waxahatchee’s career. Instrumentally, the verses offer a bouncy groove à la Saint Cloud’s “War,” supplemented by Nick Bockrath’s pedal steel. The tune rips open in the verses, Crutchfield leaning into her full vocal power, as MJ Lenderman’s electric guitar sears into the left speaker, challenging the pedal steel, as Spencer Tweedy’s drumming ratchets up in intensity. These sounds, borrowing sensibilities from Ivy Tripp (2015) and Out In The Storm, create a new sense of thickness and urgency within the soundscape.
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“Crimes Of The Heart,” meanwhile, is understated in a particular way. Rather than relying on a sparse sound to create a sense of gravity (see “St. Cloud” and “Recite Remorse”), this tune is more in the spirit of American Weekend (2012), Waxahatchee’s whispered debut. Like that record, “Crimes Of The Heart” is minimalistic simply because it is, not because it’s trying to do something. The lyrics describe the fatigue of going to the same person, over and over, for support—the feeling of being a burden. While it certainly sounds like Waxahatchee as we now know her, the emotional, lyrical, and musical tenors of the track fuse her musical identities to carve out a new purpose.
In reaching across Waxahatchee’s history, Tigers Blood is not recycling old sounds; it’s making the most of her repertoire. One of the great constants in that repertoire is the strength of her voice, which is on full display here. Opening track “3 Sisters” takes the torch from “Fire,” spiraling through Crutchfield’s range, as the band slowly emerges around her.
But “365” is a new thing altogether, with breathtaking transitions between her powerful chest voice and her falsetto. The technical achievement of the performance lends credibility to the songwriting, in which Crutchfield describes the confidence in navigating the contradictions of a relationship. She knows that nothing is perfect, and she full-throatedly (literally) embraces those complexities, rather than idealizing.
Tigers Blood also leans into Crutchfield’s pivot into country. Her recent duo record with Jess Williamson, I Walked With You A Ways, gave Crutchfield a chance to experiment with a deep country instrumentation, which emerges on Tigers Blood on lead single “Right Back To It” as well as the title track. “Right Back To It,” with its gentle banjo, mellow electric guitar, and warm harmony with MJ Lenderman, is one of the most settled songs on Tigers Blood. Lyrically, the song describes a relationship that waxes and wanes in its security and intensity, but the couple always end up making their way back to one another. It is a sense of peace amidst a recognition that things are broken.
This is the central achievement of Tigers Blood. One does not need to be perfect to be their best self. It is, somehow, an album about a person’s internal life that is both deeply optimistic and deeply realistic. While Saint Cloud was creating a new world, Tigers Blood is carving out the beauty in the chaos of this one. Both, I think, are indispensable.
Notable Tracks: “365” | “Bored” | “Crimes Of The Heart” | “Right Back To It”
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