Out in the Storm presents music that reflects the lean anger — aimed at oneself and others — of these moments. The follow-up, Cerulean Salt, sounded more polished, added instruments, but still came off hushed and spare. While most members here endured abuse/neglect in their childhood, survivors of relational trauma that began in adulthood are also welcome. I wouldn't go as far as saying that the pressing is thin, but the record does not sound that drastically different from the digital version. And these songs should be lean, because the words here are hurt, angry, fighting to make sense of the past while also defiantly moving forward. Never bitter. Ivy Tripp, her first record for Merge, brightened the palate, added more keyboards, pushing the borders of her sound slightly outward. In Naples, NBC’s Kerry Sanders kneeled on the ground to avoid being knocked over by the storm’s fierce winds. Where lesser songwriters would simply lay bare the villain of the story, Crutchfield presents a voice that recognizes its role in the “storm.” The album opens with a tough admission: “I spent all my time learning how to defeat / you at your own game, it’s embarrassing.” Later in the album Crutchfield is “reciting lines of remorse,” which is different than feeling genuinely sorry, and claims to have “one foot out the door.” And then there’s “Silver,” where she sings “I went out in the storm, and I’m never returning.” She admits her agency here, in knowing there’s a storm but heading into it anyway. The louder and leaner songs here whip you into the same frenzy Crutchfield is in, and somewhere in that frenzy you start to see the little details and subtleties in her songwriting. “No Question” borrows some of the bright yet thorny layers of Ivy Tripp, and morphs them into Waxahatchee’s grandest rock song, one that makes Crutchfield’s increasingly angry delivery feel all the more intimidating. It can lead to your music morphing from intimate to arena-sized to too big to succeed (It could also lead to album titles that reflect expanse, like, say, Everything Now, or American Dream.). Crutchfield’s voice and words are strong here, cutting right to the bone. Listen to/Buy Out in the Storm at Amazon, Google Play, Spotify, or Apple Music. Producer, Vocals, Guitar, Keyboards, Bass, Percussion, Written-By, Vocals, Guitar, Keyboards, Piano, Percussion, Out In The Storm, LP, Album, Club, Ltd, Num, Cle, MRG594, Out In The Storm, LP + LP, Whi + Album, Dlx, Ltd, MRG594. But these songs, despite being stories about feeling hemmed in, aren’t about being a victim. Limited-edition deluxe 2-LP gatefold jacket with lyrics, Keyboards, Percussion [Additional Percussion], Vocals, Guitar, Bass, Drum Machine, Keyboards, Vocals, Guitar, Keyboards, Bass, Percussion [Additional Percussion], Vocals, Guitar, Keyboards, Piano, Percussion [Additional Percussion], Buy Vinyl. Crutchfield delivers some cutting truths here, to a person who thinks it is their “God-given right” to feel sure they’ve “never been wrong,” to a person who creates art by manufacturing themselves as “a sufferer, a stepping stone.” And the thing they create — “narcissistic injury disguised as masterpiece” — only matters as a way to get attention by “herd[ing] your friends into a gallery.” Over the course of the record Crutchfield peels away pretensions and personas to uncover those things no one else could see in public on “Never Been Wrong.”. 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