Anxious times got you down? Wooden Shjips promise the peace train is coming on their upcoming LP V., due out May 25th via Thrill Jockey. This will be the quartet’s aptly named fifth long-player, and the basic tracking was recorded by Jason Powers at Types Foundry Studio in Portland, with Chicago psych master Cooper Crain (Cave, Circuit Des Yeux) handling the mix. The songs were written by singer/guitarist Ripley Johnson during the summer of 2017, and those living on the West Coast know that the summer brought expansive wildfires which clouded areas of the Pacific Northwest with enough ash and smoke to blot out the summer sun. He explains:
“We had huge forest fires just outside of Portland and there was intense haze and layers of ash in the city. I was sitting on my porch every evening, watching ash fall down like snow, the sky looking like it was on fire. It was an apocalyptic feeling. Summer in Portland is usually really chill and beautiful, and we were working on a summer record, but the outside world kept intruding on my headspace. V., a graphic representation of the Peace sign, seemed apt to an album focused on the power of peace, beauty, and resistance. The music is a balm against the noise and negativity.
“Staring At The Sun” is our first listen in on the upcoming record, and it casts a solar spell with its’ warm but languid glow. Johnson reports that many of the vocal and guitar parts were recorded in the comforts of his home studio, and, whether this track was recorded there or not, an ease pervades across the 8-minute cut–even as ash falls from the sky and the sun glows an apocalyptic orange. The song captures this odd dynamic by alternating meditative verses with roaring storms of sonic warmth. Built around a repeated two-note guitar part that provides Wooden Shjips’ trademark mantric power, it’s the interchange between these gentle passages and the more aggressive bass-driven tones that forwards the narrative here, while throughout, Johnson’s cascading guitar lines drop like warm rain.
Wooden Shjips ? V. (May 25th, Thrill Jockey)
1. Eclipse
2. In The Fall
3. Red Line
4. Already Gone
5. Staring At The Sun
6. Golden Flower
7. Ride On
