By Genre: Indie Pop
Favorite Tracks: “Doorway,” “Poison,” “Cradle,” “Rewind”
Similarly to how “Freak” opened up feeble little horse’s last record, GIRL WITH FISH, “Doorway” kicks off BITKNOT with vibrant feedback followed by explosive guitar hits that get pulled away as immediately as they come in. Where the Pittsburgh band hit the ground running three years ago with one of their stickiest hooks and most satisfying riffs, the distortion on “Doorway” reveals a clean indietronica base with twittering drum machine, beeping synth, and cut-up vocal samples during whispered verses. It isn’t until the frustrated chorus that the compressed guitars come back and Lydia Slocum’s vocals get drowned out. The sweetness that overwhelmed their breakout record is still here, but the darkness underneath it is hard to ignore. In fact, it is actively battling the fun combination of indie pop instrumentals and lullaby vocals that the band established themselves with. This first impression is representative of the new record as a whole; where GIRL WITH FISH makes a bold statement of claim regarding the band’s unique blend of indie rock, digicore, and irresistible hook writing, BITKNOT dials things back. This is feeble little horse at their most focused and particular.
BITKNOT can feel a bit sleepy at times, but not in a bad way, leaning further into slacker rock and bedroom pop than feeble little horse ever have. The loudest and most immediate songs are often the shortest. There’s nothing like “Freak” or “Steamroller” here. It makes sense—the intensely hooky and often subversive genre fusings of those tracks are completely against the more brooding nature of this record. It would be too much like playing the game, something the band seems increasingly disinterested in. After all, BITKNOT was released on a Tuesday with no singles to back it. Some of the promo done for this record was a secret, cult-like mailer that went out to select fans, song snippets underscoring lost-media-esque visuals. The current trio aren’t trying to overwhelm the social media landscape with content in the same way other groups in the indie underground are doing (shout out Chaotic Good Projects).
This is all to support feeble little horse’s daring decision to bring their bright take on noise pop and indietronica to an enrapturing slump punctured by malaise and alienation. “I wanted to keep everything,” Slocum unintelligibly lets out on “Doorway,” overwhelmed by a fresh nostalgia brought about by what seem to be fragmented memories recalled in the verses. “Poison” is debt-ridden and labyrinthian, with hypnotic chord progressions underneath a ghostly and satisfying synth lead that quickly makes way for an even more juicy guitar riff. It is a perfectly crafted pop tune that is just unsettling enough to really prod the anxiety center of the brain. “Rewind” is sickeningly sentimental with its banjo-plucked intro and tight vocal lines, making the blunt and accepting statement that seeing eye to eye is harder than ever.
Balancing out BITKNOT’s overwhelming loneliness is the band’s secret weapon of Sebastian Kinsler’s beatmaking. These soundscapes can sound otherworldly, which is a nice way to dial back some of the gravity caused by situating Slocum’s lyrics in the modern day hellscape that is living in America. The windy synth beds on “Shady” have the track blooming with life. The hazy guitars and Auto-Tune on “Upside Down” cross over the bright vocal chops, making for one of the groovier cuts on the album. The lazy swing on “Guts” is reinforced by an infectious, pitched-up vocal line, punctuated by noisy breaks of piercing synth and guitar distortion.
It isn’t only the production providing a sense of escapism. The beautiful love tune “Cradle” feels like a sigh of relief after the buildup of the one-two punch of “Dior” and “Paris.” It is nice to hear a song about finding safety in the presence of someone else after hearing about the slight social failures that come with flaking on the Wednesday show.
BITKNOT is a strange follow-up for feeble little horse. It attempts to say a lot without making too heavy of a musical statement. It wants the listener to be chilled by the tasteful noise pop instrumentation and soft vocals, but subtly disturbed by its lyrics, blown back by frequent noisy detours and loud guitars. Slocum’s narrations of experiencing confusion in navigating the world of “death, money, [and] tech” can make you comatose in one moment while screaming your guts out in the next, as she does on the closing track “DMT.” Kinsler’s auteur production style and the rhythmic backbone provided by Jake Kelley’s detail-obsessed drumwork still manage to center this album on sonic satisfaction. It is what has always made feeble little horse great: songs that manage to both constantly strike pleasure reserves without having to draw from overused and bland ideas.
Comments