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Back in the pre-pandemic days of 2019, EvilSponge received a promo for an Indie duo who had just relocated to Brooklyn from Chicago. They released a record called Someone Else's Song which blended folkish rock, indie rock, and booming rave tunes. It was an odd mix, and i was never able to wrap my head around how to talk about how all of those elements worked together and did not, in fact, clash as much as you might think...
Well, the band in question, Water From Your Eyes, are on their second record since that release. They have moved up from independently releasing their stuff to being signed to Matador, which is a pretty big thing. And, more importantly, they have refined their sound so that the seemingly disparate elements which were often separate songs on the previous record, are here ebbing and flowing into one another in the same song.
Nate Amos does the music, and he has a fascinating sense of the interconnectedness of sounds. For example, Buy My Product has sawing strings, a funky bass riff and drum line like a dance tune, and then a fast guitar solo seeming wandered in from a guitar rock album. Or consider Barley, where keys tinkle like a synthpop tune, drums thud (a monstrous riff), and a guitar chugs. The songs sound chaotic when i describe them that way, but Amos makes them work.
Combine these strange tunes with the bored vocals of Rachel Brown (note: a different Rachel Browne than the one in the band Field Mouse -- that one has an "e" at the end of her last name!). Brown sings in layers, usually with an upfront layer that is bored, just repeating surrealist lyrics that sometimes don't make sense. For example, in the title track Brown starts with the line "I'm with everyone I love and everything hurts" and then sings a dozen variations where she moves one word or another to get a different meaning, some of which make sense in the song, but are not strictly speaking grammatically correct...
At any rate, this is a fascinating record. Amos and Brown are doing interesting things and combining all sorts of musical elements into a whole which seems odd, but also works. Personally, i am impressed with how much they have grown musically since 2019. That previous record was interesting but weird, this is fascinating and great, because it is weird.
I can't wait to see what Amos and Brown do next!
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