Sobriety can smooth any artist’s fuzzy edges. Named after the Alabama creek that runs behind her childhood home, Katie Crutchfield, AKA Waxahatchee, ditched alcohol for good before making her fifth album, Saint Cloud, which sees her sound leap from reverb-laden indie rock to glossy, radio-friendly country. But even though her work has become progressively hi-fi since her scratchy, Cat Power-like 2012 debut American Weekend, there’s a sharpness in these songs that still unsettles.
It’s there in Crutchfield’s vocals, louder and fiercer than before, and on songs such as Fire, which is also difficult to love. Her lyrics, tackling subjects including addiction and self-hatred, often feel too verbose, but they become surprising and refreshing on closer listen. Can’t Do Much is an intense, jittery love song with a great opening couplet: “We will coalesce our heaven and hell / My eyes roll around like dice on the felt.” Lilacs despairs of a girl who has harmful inner monologues (“I run it like a silent movie / I run it like a violent song”). Arkadelphia feels like a Bruce Springsteen narrative with its fires restoked for today’s troubled thirtysomethings. This album has a bloodied, ambitious heart on its sleeve. It wants the world to hear it beating.
