Though she's been making music as half of Wye Oak with Andy Stack for the better part of a decade, Jenn Wasner's has her hands in many creative pots. Five years ago she released "Prison Bride", the first single under her solo moniker Flock of Dimes and while she's added a couple singles to the mix (as well as forming Dungeonesse with Jon Ehrens), she's returning again to the project and giving it a bit more attention.
Wasner may have kept her projects separate from each other but there's no denying the effect each has had on the others: after exploring her love of pop unabashed love of pop with Dungeonesse, Wye Oak returned with arguably their most pop-centric record in Shriek. But Wasner's solo project has been slowly undergoing a metamorphosis over the years. Finally readying a batch of tunes in the form of debut full length If You See Me, Say Yes, "Semaphore" and new single "Everything Is Happening Today" hardly resemble the bombastic, glitchy debut of "Prison Bride". The production is sleeker, if not necessarily glossier, and Wasner imbues the project with clarity and narrative depth.
Lyrically "Everything Is Happening Today" resembles "Watching The Waiting", the lead single from Wye Oak's recent non-album Tween, in its emotional inventory. That's hardly a coincidence seeing as they were both written around the same time Wasner relocated to Raleigh from Baltimore. But while in the Wye Oak track Wasner essentially relives her past failures unable to change the outcome, "Everything Is Happening Today" leverages the knowledge of those failures with an appreciation of the experience. It's beguiling both in its refusal to wallow in heartbreak pop tropes and a delightful sense of life-affirming hopefulness. Wasner sings of fragility with vulnerability but there's an unmistakeable strength that carries the track to its resolved chorus of "Everything that ever was is happening today".
Flock of Dimes' debut full length If You See Me, Say Yes is out September 23rd on Partisan Records. You can preorder the record now.
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