Last year Asheville rockers Wednesday had the exceptionally good fortune to release their brilliant album I Was Trying to Describe You to Someone right before the pandemic hit and everything closed down. While they weren't totally immune to the devastating effects of the pandemic on their album release cycle (in this case, they couldn't really tour behind it), it at the very least was an album that got to be released into the world when people had more time to sit and reflect.
"Handsome Man", the first single from Wednesday's forthcoming album Twin Plagues, might not arrive as hot on the heels of their sophomore record as you'd expect - instead following a record Karly Hartzmann and bandmate and longtime collaborator MJ Lenderman released earlier this year but it arrives like no time has been lost - echoing a similar sense of immediacy that made album standout "Fate Is..." an instant favorite. Hartzmann's anecdotal narrative style returns with a bit of a twist - Hartzmann's delivery revels a bit more in delayed gratification, allowing her lyrics to conjure up visuals before providing you with the easier associations. The pauses aren't long enough to draw too much attention to them but with enough space to function as a kind of word association. Hartzmann's deceptively descriptive - providing just the right amount of detail that you can effortlessly imagine the scenes she recalls but very much providing you with secondhand experience of the accounts. They're stories you're hearing while still remaining very much her own. There's no why's or how's in Hartzmann's storytelling style but she's still beguilingly engaging. "Handsome Man" clocks in at just under two and a half minutes and there's certainly no time wasted as Hartzmann effortlessly conjures up a handful of various mental pictures and leaves you with the slightest hint of an existentialism: "Where do we go when the glow goes home" she ponders before immediately giving you something more tangible to latch on to and experience.
While "Handsome Man" might be a considerably short song, Hartzmann has already proved that not only can she can create emotionally resonant pieces in the space of these songs but that's she's fully capable of writing longer songs which just as much impact. I Was Trying to Describe You to Someone was an incredibly strong effort and "Handsome Man" gives every indication that Hartzmann and Wednesday have plenty more where that came from and I couldn't be more excited.
Twin Plagues, the third album from Wednesday is out August 13th on Orindal Records. The record is available limited edition Tiffany Blue, standard black vinyl, lime green cassette, and of course digitally. You can pre-order the record now.