Rat Saw God

Description

The songs of Wednesday form a collection of short stories, snippets of memories, a patchwork of disparate moments that make sense once gathered together. Karly Hartzman, the songwriter/singer/guitarist at the helm of the project, is as much a collector of stories as she is a storyteller: a specialist in people and their lines. Rat Saw God, the new album from the North Carolina quintet, is autobiographical and above all deeply empathetic. Through the ten tracks of the album, Hartzman and her accomplices MJ Lenderman, Margo Shultz, Alan Miller, and lap/pedal steel player Xandy Chelmis build an ode to details. From tragicomic snapshots at the intersection of 90s shoegaze and classic country twang, with a distorted lap steel, and Hartzman's voice cutting through the noise. The songs of Rat Saw God do not tell epic tales, just the everyday. They are true, real, blurry, chaotic, and strange. But with Rat Saw God – and with any song by Wednesday, really – you don’t even necessarily need to catch all the references to grasp the essence, the oddly specific exhilaration of a song that hits just right. It’s all in the details – how messed up you can feel, how you can break a heart, how you fall in love – but it’s especially the way these little moments add up and articulate in a song, an album, or in life that truly matters.