Waxahatchee – Tigers Blood
What do you do when you’ve become a fixture on the indie-Americana scene, worked and toured with any number of fantastic musicians, written a standout album about addiction and sobriety, and settled into a secure relationship, all by your mid 30s? If you’re Katie Crutchfield, you use your new album to tackle an underexplored topic – adult onset ennui. Waxahatchee’s gorgeous new record, Tigers Blood, looks at the mess of unresolved feelings that still exist after reaching what should be a happy life plateau.
Waxahatchee’s last album, 2020’s Saint Cloud, was most notable for (of course) Crutchfield’s storytelling, but also benefited from her choice of co-workers. Producer Brad Cook helped draw out the twang in Crutchifeld’s soul, and Bobby Colombo and Bill Lennox (of Detroit band Bonny Doon) added subtle but rich guitar tones. All of that, along with the contributions of multi-instrumentalist Josh Kaufman, produced perhaps the most singular record of our alone-but-shared pandemic experience. Crutchfield and Cook again display a knack for choosing collaborators on Tigers Blood – Cook’s brother Phil shows up playing just about everything, and Spencer Tweedy signed up as Waxahatchee’s new drummer. But Crutchfield took her biggest swing by enlisting MJ Lenderman on guitar. The indie star (and guitar player for Wednesday) makes his presence known on Tigers Blood’s first single, “Right Back To It.” The languid, banjo-tinged tune explores what happens in a relationship when the fireworks fade and two folks who are used to wandering (Crutchfield’s longtime partner is musician Kevin Morby) have to do the hard grown-up stuff – “I lose a bit of myself/Laying out eggshells.” Lenderman’s chiming guitar solo and mood-perfect harmonies help deliver the song’s ultimate confession – the fact that contentedness can feel both safe and scary as hell: “I let my mind run wild/Don’t know why I do it/But you just settle in/Like a song with no end.”
Crutchfield addresses the idea of adult boredom most directly in, well, “Bored.” In one of the more guitar-driven tunes in her catalog (pushed further forward by a spectacular rhythm section from Tweedy and Phil Cook), the singer finds herself fighting off that apathy with anger – “Lord knows I tried/I keep my mind occupied/Watch for the falling tide/Make an exit on the sly.” “Evil Spawn” has Crutchfield questioning if her pursuit of music is enough to keep her going – “Take my money, I don’t work that hard/I fall asleep in the beating heart/Of a dying breed peddling some lost art,” but also wondering where we’ll all headed “in the final act of the good ole days.” “Ice Cold” is full of heartland twang while Crutchfield does what she does best – increasing tension by climbing her vocal register before crashing into her own reality – “I’ll never/have another/Burning hot/I run ice cold.”
Even in the accomplished spot she’s not quite ready to acknowledge she’s at, Crutchfield is unafraid to admit that her demons are still very much alive. “365,” maybe the quietest song on Tigers Blood, has her flashing back to her twin lifelong companions: addiction and codependence – “I catch your poison arrow/I catch your same disease.” In her prettiest vocals on the record, she confesses an inability, at least at that time in her life, to let go and avoid self-harm – “You always go about this the wrong way/And I’m too weak to just let you drown.” The title track, though, has her reconsidering her approach to whom she allows in her inner circle. The album capper, which features group vocals from Tigers Blood’s entire retinue (symbolizing a newfound ability to “let the right ones in”), finds the singer at a coin-flip point in her life – “I held it like a penny I found/It might bring me something, it might weigh me down.” Seemingly in a more confident place, Katie Crutchfield is done letting those choices make her. Rather, she’s fighting inertia with every fiber of her being. We’re lucky enough to hear the results.
Song I Can’t Wait to Hear Live: You might think it would be “Right Back To It”…and you’d be right. I knew when I heard it in early January that it might end up being my favorite song of 2024. So far, nothing else has come close.
Tigers Blood was produced by Brad Cook, engineered and mixed by Gerardo “Jerry” Ordonez and mastered by Emily Lazar. Musicians on the album include Katie Crutchfield (lead and harmony vocals, acoustic guitar, high bass guitar), MJ Lenderman (electric guitar, drone guitar, baritone acoustic guitar, harmony and group vocals), Phil Cook (Dobro, organ, piano, banjo, harmonica, marimba, accordion, electric slide, group vocals), Brad Cook (bass guitar, Prophet 6 synth, low bass guitar, baritone acoustic guitar, group vocals), Spencer Tweedy (drums, percussion, Mellotron, cedar plank, cymbal, harmony and group vocals), Nick Bockrath (pedal steel) and Natalia Chernitsky (group vocals).
Go here to order Tigers Blood (out March 22): https://kf-merch.com/collections/waxahatchee
Check out tour dates here: https://www.waxahatchee.com/shows
Find our previous coverage here: Show Review: Jason Isbell at Red Rocks with Waxahatchee opening
