True Widow: I.N.O. (2011)
I would have probably unloaded this EP by now, if not for the subtle elegance of its cover art (love the gossamer sperm whale) and stark white vinyl -- all courtesy of stylish indie label Kemado/Mexican Summer.
Truth is, Texan trio True Widow are a little too cool for me, even though their sonics dovetail with much of what a listen to, usually from less civilized, crude ensembles, guided, not by intellectual, but instinctive muses.
But, for what it’s worth, “For Grace” is a spare, folksy acoustic guitar piece, leaving it to the title track (still no clue what the letters stand for) to “put some meat on the bone,” to the tune of fourteen minutes-plus of laconic, hypnotic, mid-paced psychedelia à la Dead Meadow, ending in feedback.
Nice!
This, in True Widow’s lexicon, is called “stone-gaze,” and that indie dimension (the “gaze”) really surfaces on the plodding, lazily voiced “Bathyscaphe,” before repeating itself in ever-decaying (but still generally compelling) iterations on the similarly impenetrable “S.Y.B.” and “S.F.H.D.”
Gee, guys, why didn’t you call one of them B.Y.O.B.?
All kidding aside, I actually prefer this time-restrained EP to the band’s long-players, where their lackadaisical performances -- intentional as they may be -- eventually start grating on my nerves.
As for True Widow’s career prospects, hipster fodder to the end, it seems their shining moment has come and gone, but who knows? Perhaps the capricious winds of indie trends will blow their way again.
More True Widow: As High as the Highest Heavens and from the Center to the Circumference of the Earth.
