Wednesday – Rat Saw God (Purple Vinyl)

Over the course of the ten songs on "Rat Saw God," the band Wednesday from Asheville, North Carolina erects a shrine full of exciting details: half-funny, half-tragic messages from the Southern states that unfold sonically somewhere between the wailing skuzz of Nineties shoegaze and classic country twang - with distorted pedal steel and frontwoman Karly Hartzman cutting through the noise with her voice. A song by Wednesday is like a quilt. A short story collection, a hazy memory, a patchwork quilt of portraits of the American South that captures disparate moments yet somehow makes sense as a whole. Karly Hartzman, the band's songwriter, singer, guitarist and leader, is a story collector as well as a storyteller: a keen observer of people and witty remarks. "Rat Saw God," the Asheville quintet's new and best album, is ekphrastic but equally autobiographical and, above all, deeply insightful. It was written in the months immediately following the completion of the band's second album, "Twin Plagues," and recorded within a week at Drop Of Sun Studio in Asheville. The songs on "Rat Saw God" don't tell epics, but the everyday. They are true to life, they tell of real life, they are hazy and messy and strange at the same time - which is in keeping with Hartzman's own ethos: "Everyone's story is worthy. Literally every life story is worth writing down, because people are so fascinating."