Music / Reviews
Review: Waxahatchee, Fleece
Katie Crutchfield has come a long way since 2012’s American Weekend, her debut album as Waxahatchee, recorded solo in her bedroom. The follow-up, Cerulean Salt, was also recorded in this way later that year, but when Wichita Recordings picked up the act, the album was re-recorded in a studio, with crunching full-band elements and cleaner tones.
This transformation opened the door for Waxahatchee to become much more than a one-person acoustic show when performing live, too. For the extensive touring that is following this year’s Ivy Tripp album, Crutchfield’s third, she has brought together a five-piece band including her sister and former P.S. Eliot bandmate Alison, as well as Ivy Tripp producer Keith Spencer on a third guitar.
The result of this line-up expansion, and what it would mean for Waxahatchee’s live sound, became evident from an opening one-two of ‘Under A Rock’ and ‘Misery Over Dispute’, with Crutchfield’s soaring voice backed by a seemingly never-ending wall of guitars. While this successfully amped up some of her songs to greater heights, such as a new, quicker, poppier ‘Lips and Limbs’, on other occasions it distracted from the subtle beauties of so many of Crutchfield’s songs, drowning her voice and captivating storytelling beneath drums and guitars.
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Highlights, then, came in the form of the beautiful ‘Blue pt. II’, performed by the two Crutchfields, and an encore of Ivy Tripp standout ‘Summer of Love’ and the sole appearance of a song from American Weekend, closer ‘Grass Stain’. In these songs only was Crutchfield’s talent for songwriting and melody really allowed to shine through.
Awkward glances were often exchanged between the band members during the set, largely due to sound issues on stage and broken strings, and evident teething problems with the new line-up showed, but amongst a host of problems, Katie Crutchfield’s songs had more than the power to shine through and rise above.
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