Chelsea Wolfe’s music is heavy. Whether it’s the neofolk of her early releases or the doom metal of 2017’s Hiss Spun, the singer-songwriter’s work is always immersed in gothic touches. Wolfe’s seventh studio album, She Reaches Out to She Reaches Out to She, finds her moving in yet another sonic direction—closer to trip-hop and industrial than traditional rock—but still channeling that same witchy, backwoods spirit.
The album’s inspirations are immediately apparent on opener “Whispers in the Echo Chamber.” The timbre of Wolfe’s voice evokes that of Portishead’s Beth Gibbons, and the beat is strikingly similar to the trip-hop pioneers’ aptly titled “Machine Gun.” Throughout the track, Bryan Tulao’s metallic lead guitar helps to elevate the tension.
Wolfe and producer David Sitek give the music more space to breathe on the album’s second half. Backed by ominous piano, “Salt” is restrained but just as menacing, comprising a collage of sound effects, loops, and white noise. Elsewhere, the chilling “Place in the Sun” and “Eyes Like Nightshade” are constructed from relatively subdued clatters of synthesizers and percussion, putting the focus more squarely on Wolfe’s fragile, reverb-soaked vocals.
In its quest to convey its dark mood and themes, the album can sometimes veer into Hot Topic excess. But this isn’t merely a soundtrack for Halloween parties. Wolfe, who began drinking when she was just 11, got sober before making the album, and songs like “Everything Turns Blue” convey a rush of emotions unencumbered by artificial numbing, with the singer’s dry vocal placed at the front of the mix before being buried by the track’s thick, sludgy chorus.
There’s a tension in Wolfe’s music between a tendency to overdramatize or cloak her pain in gothic imagery and a genuine yearning to be heard and understood. While the former can feel facile, She Reaches Out to She Reaches Out to She more often manages to arrive at the latter. Wolfe’s songs might avoid specific details about her actual life, but the sturm und drang coursing through them is potent and deeply felt.
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The post Chelsea Wolfe <em>She Reaches Out to She Reaches Out to She</em> Review: Gothic Sturm und Drang appeared first on Slant Magazine.