Blurring of the Horns

There's an easy-to-understand message in “Eating the Egg Whole,” the second song on Wild Pink's fifth album: “Sometimes a dream isn't meant to be lived, it's meant to be forgotten.” Transience is a fact of life – holding on to something fleeting is usually not healthy. Pretty universal message. However, you might miss that kernel of wisdom as frontman John Ross spends the rest of the song wrapping it up in fancy sports metaphors.

It charts Michael Jordan's late career, from the 1997 offseason to his retirement in 2003, each library tied to a specific detail (an iconic beret, “freedom fries”) and a renaissance of sports franchises (the Washington Bullets become the Wizards, the Montreal Expos becoming the Washington Nationals). After a few listens, the nothing-is-forever connection becomes clearer, but Ross's choice of evidence remains uncharacteristically idiosyncratic.

This is Wild Pink's most exciting, propulsive album, but I have no idea what it's about. Within the first few seconds of opener “The Fences of Stonehenge,” Ross finds a lumpy, guitar-heavy sound he likes, and barely turns a knob over the next 38 minutes. A Wild Pink album hasn't had this level of consistency since the start of 2018 Yellow in the fur. of 2022 ILYSM was highly eclectic, oscillating between folk rock, electro-pop and doomgaze, held together by a unifying focus on Ross's recent cancer diagnosis. Blurring of the Horns it's quite the opposite: straight down the middle, despite lyrics that shoot off in every direction.

A few months ago ILYSMRoss debuted a heavier, distorted sound on the non-album single “Q. Degraw', which contributed to that album's crushing 'Sucking on the Birdshot'. J Mascis was also a guest ILYSM; Blurring of the Horns he sounds a bit like Dinosaur Jr.'s guitarist. who produced a Bruce Springsteen album. If you come to Wild Pink for softer, more emotionally open music, this album may initially come off as rough, but the way it contrasts with ILYSMThe pointless, saccharine moments breathe new life into it. Ross laces powerful riffs on the rock of the heart that dominated Yellow in the fur and of 2021 A billion little lightsand at the end of his tail Lost in the dream decade, it's an injection of much-needed excitement into a legacy sound.