Indie sophisticates
Wye Oak return with
The Louder I Call, The Faster It Runs, the duo's most vibrant and aurally dazzling record to date. The tonal sea change that began on 2014's
Shriek carries through to their fifth effort, whose dramatic polyrhythms and ever-shifting synth and guitar grooves resemble the interlocking gears of some fantastic timepiece. Since their 2006 debut,
Jenn Wasner and
Andy Stack have taken an increasingly less-straightforward path to achieve their musical means, working well beyond the minimalism of their guitar-and-drums personnel to create intricate but accessible modern pop music.
Wasner's excellent 2016 solo project,
Flock of Dimes, is certainly a major influence on
Wye Oak's current direction, placing a greater emphasis on bright, electronic-threaded production and arrangements that are somehow both sweeping and finely detailed. Her experiment of writing primarily for bass on
Shriek has given way to a more prominent multi-instrumentalism which is as heavy on guitar as on synths, loops, and other electronic elements from both players. Introspective without being maudlin, songs like "The Instrument," "Symmetry," and the dynamic title cut hurl along with an intrinsic energy, exploring the relationships of self, others, and sounds themselves. While honoring their guitar and drums roots,
Wye Oak fill out their canvas with a variety of colors from the pensive underlying loops of the dreamy "You of All People" to the deeply atmospheric centerpiece, "My Signal," which places
Wasner's gorgeous vocals over an elegant arrangement of strings and experimental pinging tones. The sunlit reflections that
Wasner traversed as
Flock of Dimes are similarly parsed on
The Louder I Call, though
Wye Oak is still very much a collaboration between her and
Stack. When working together, their push and pull remains an attractive part of their appeal and never more so than on this exciting outing. ~ Timothy Monger