Widowdusk
Photo Cred 📷 : @ohlust
Sometimes I find myself chasing something when listening to music. I become fixated on a feeling, a high I’m searching for. There is this subtle ache that I can hear and almost like a salve, it calms me down in a way few things can. There’s a commonality that I can feel through Widowdusk’s music, a meeting point of what that all feels like, you know that spot in the room we all stare at with bleary eyes and a catch in our throats of broken promises and wishful thinking at 3 am. “I Know Where We’re At, Not Where We’re Going” is all of that stretched across 18 minutes, delivered with I-swear-to-god-I’m-trying honesty.
We start with “Knots'' wheeling about a shattered relationship. Lyrics of regret mingling with plinking, morose guitars as the bass glowers on through sharp, acute drums. Reminiscent of Ezra Joyce’s “Holmes and Chicago”, the vocals seem to wretch themselves from the back of the larynx, urgently pleading to be heard. While awash in the dissonance of “Selfless”, the melodic guitars leap into a salvo of cascading and enveloping drums, tugged at that intangible piece in me that really wished to be better.
There's a punch of Junior Healy echoing in there, though Widowdusk emulates in the way an alchemist repurposes what was to make what is new. The gentle instrumentation opening lull of “Holding On” builds to slowly burst and slow again, dripping back into a steadied pace of guitars, drums and a restrained bass rumbling like a thunder storm 3 towns over before a repeated let go, chases its brother let go, to rejoin the chorused LET GO, and the clattering of all members vying for the source of release wind through riffs and strums, clangs and thumps to quietly taper off, before a lone guitar melody grasps and hopes one last time.
Widowdusk hail from California, and in the unbridled golden rays of our unflinching sun, they’ve managed to allow us a window into the clouded and often unlit recess of what it means to fail and to feel the hurt of failing. This is where we find our common ground. There we find our salve.
We are very excited for what the future holds for them, and look forward to what they have in store for us next.
“I Know Where We’re At, Not Where We’re Going” is out now and available on tape through Oliver Glenn Records.
Check out their Bandcamp here : Widowdusk
Writer : @letsgetpivotal
Editor : @just_reidz
09/19/22
