Wye Oak have slowly been climbing their way to the top of the indie rock pile for years. But Shriek is a different tune than usual for them. I, for one, am not complaining — I usually love it when a band experiments — but for those looking for the full breadth of Wye Oak’s work, it’s well visiting their 2011 record Civilian as well.
As a result, Shriek surprises. Check out Glory, or Sick Talk, as great examples of what an indie band can do when they drop everything and focus solely on growing their sound. Despicable Animal sounds like a bit of a throw-back to an older time, but I mean that in a good way.
One of my favourite comments about the record is that Annie Clark could have sounded like with the new St. Vincent record if she wasn’t so worried about “being weird” — I love it because it makes no sense. Is this record too weird? Too normal? I have no idea; I just think it sounds great. Listen to Logic of Color! More of this, please!