Album Review :: White Wives :: Self Titled 7″

Written by: Andrea Janov, CC2K Music Editor

White Wives :: Self Titled 7” :: A-F Records

As a recent transplant to Pittsburgh, I am still hesitant to think of myself as a local, and have a price in local bands, but man, I am super psyched that White Wives are a local band. At the very least, that means that they will play some Pittsburgh shows.

This two track EP is one of the most interesting records I have heard in a long time. It is raw and personal and leaves you in a different emotional space than you started.

From the first fucking note I was sucked in. Yours accosts you with a wall of sound sort of thing then these layered vocals enter that totally hypnotize you. It is noisy, distorted, layered, and so fucking catchy and sing-along-able. The music is intense and vocals are raspy and menacing and mesmerizing. Mid-song the vibe totally changes with a bit drop out and then the entrance of a passionate yelling and a bit more of a garage-punk rock sound. The vocals are a bit rawer in this section and totally worm their way deep inside your chest.

The B side, Nothing Is Real is a calmer track, though the music is intense, it is measured and regular and the vocals have a quiet intensity that commands attention.  What I love most about this track is the poetry of the lyrics, all of them. These lines are beautiful, sad, and personal. Just a taste, “When you are lost in the stars on the hood of your car / I’m playing guitar in some flat broken bar” and I swear, they only get better.

I could ramble on about this record for pages, but that won’t do you much good. I imagine that this is what my personal pied piper would sound like. Fucking go check it out.