Band/Artist: Chelsea Wolfe
Album: Hiss Spun
Best song: “16 Psyche”
Worst song: “Twin Fawn” is a great song, but the least fitting on the record.

One of the things about getting older is that you lost touch with a lot of your friends. If you don’t have an activity with them – this is partially why I still play softball. It makes me see people I like without having to make an effort. – it’s easy to lose track of one another’s lives. Marriage, kids and the general ennui of getting older makes it so our social circles contract. Continue reading →

Band: Chelsea Wolfe
Album: Abyss
Best song: “Iron Moon.” “Grey Days.” “Carrion Flowers.” “Crazy Love.”
Worst song: “Maw” isn’t as strong as the other songs.

What can I say about Chelsea Wolfe that I haven’t already said? The California-based singer/songwriter is my favorite current artist and someone about whom I’ve sung overwhelming praise. Her fifth (or sixth, depending on how legitimate you consider Mistake in Parting) record Abyss comes out this week after early release of a few singles and her rise in the culture continues with the inclusion of one of the singles, “Carrion Flowers,” on a Fear the Walking Dead trailer.

Abyss marks a run in which Wolfe has released an album a year — save for 2014, when she was largely touring — since 2010.  Continue reading →

Band: Chelsea Wolfe
Album: Pain is Beauty
Best song: “Ancestors, the Ancients”
Worst song: “The Waves Have Come”

I’ve mentioned this a billion times before, but I am not a person who cares particularly about lyrics. Certainly in comparison to vocal timber/strength/tone, I find the lyrics to solely give a vocalist a route to vocalize notes. This comes out in bands like the Sea and Cake, wherein the lyrics are immaterial to the sound or in artists like Cat Power, where I truly believe Chan Marshall could sing a grocery list and I’d love it. Continue reading →

Band: Chelsea Wolfe
Album: Unknown Rooms: A Collection Of Acoustic Songs
Best song: “Flatlands.” Definitely. Though, “Gold,” a bonus digital track, is really really good.
Worst song: I’m not as hot on “Our Work Was Good,” though it’s a good song.

It’s no secret I value vocals as an instrument more than I value lyrics; I’ve twice used the term “I’d listen to [insert name here] read the phone book” in regards to singers in this space (once about Chris Cornell, once about Chan Marshall). This is the reason I’ve not gotten as into Modest Mouse as I probably should have, it’s the reason I’ve never fully gotten into death growl music and, most importantly, it’s the reason I tend to prefer female singers to male singers. Continue reading →

Band: Chelsea Wolfe
Album: The Grime and the Glow
Best song: “Halfsleeper”
Worst song: “Bounce House Demons” is not as good as the version on Ἀποκάλυψις.

I made a very dopey pledge a while ago to never write about any album twice. This, of course, is a ludicrous notion, though it’s one I’ve kept. In doing so, I’ve not done any album twice in a post, despite my desperate want to do so. Most of the time, it’s because I want to revisit an album — feelings and opinions change just as people do — and it’s not as easy to get around that as it is to write again about an artist. Continue reading →

Band: Chelsea Wolfe
Album: Ἀποκάλυψις (Apokalypsis)
Best song: “Moses” is one of the best songs of 2011.
Worst song: “Friedrichshain” is the lowest point on a very strong album.

Genre is a shitty way to describe music, but it’s such an ingrained part of the culture that no one can avoid it. Mastodon isn’t a band, they’re a metal band or a thrash band. Continue reading →