Awash with the chime of chorus and saturated with indie nostalgia, Blue Wings is a bittersweet instalment following Wild Nothing’s 2018 album Indigo.
Blue Wings puts it’s best foot forward with the seasick riffing of thickly chorused bass, adorned with plenty of guitar shimmer. Moody pad progressions barely darken the clean and bright tones that engulf the track which serves up melody upon melody of the sort that only comes about as a result of restlessly introverted songwriting. It’s not all shambling nostalgia though – the chorus is a hook laden guitar pop treat. Clichéd? Yes. Safe? Most definitely, but it does nothing but draw a smile to my face.
As the project enters it’s tenth year, Wild Nothing remains the personal indie rock fancy of Jack Tatum, recorded alone as he imagines himself part of the jangling C-86 zeitgeist. During this time, he’s perfected the arrangements and established a refined neatness to each of his mixes. The almost cheesy sheen proved irresistible to independent pop bastion, Captured Tracks, on which all of Wild Nothing’s records have been released alongside Beach Fossils and Mac DeMarco on the Brooklyn based label.
The first release from Wild Nothing this year, Blue Wings narrowly missed the boat and fell short of inclusion on 2018’s Indigo. The fourth full length album contains the most unreserved exploration into 1980’s pop and wispy post-rock, and this track is no different. Considering it’s a song about overcoming crippling self-doubt, the irony of it’s omission is not lost on me.
The band are only complete playing live when Jack is joined by fellow musicians, of which there have been a few over the years, and Wild Nothing perform the ideas dreamt up in solitude. They’ll shortly be this side of the pond as they begin a European tour starting with Manchester’s Yes on the 11th February.
The Empty Space Between Your Ears 