Review: In Wednesday's “Bleeds”, Karly Hartzman confronts grief through a countrygaze lens.

September 19th saw countrygaze band Wednesday release their sixth studio album Bleeds. I’ve always loved this genre assignment, and “yallternative”, because it encapsulates precisely the sound the band has been able to create in melding genres together. This record, following their praised fifth album Rat Saw God, finds the band continuing their morbid antics in an even more loving style. This expansion upon the band’s previous work has brought them into a space that is all at once familiar and adventurous. It was quite easy to worry how they would continue to adjust to their view and create greater art, but Wednesday did just that with Bleeds.

Karly Hartzman of Wednesday shot by Chris Carlson/AP

The record begins with the track “Reality TV Argument Bleeds”, which builds from a simple drum to an explosive screeching yell and guitar riff. This opening track is perfectly placed and really sets listeners up for what eruptive goodness is to come in the succeeding songs. Lead singer and frontperson Karly Hartzman’s feelings are clearly laid out in her lyrics and vocal delivery, with lines like “broke dick sincerity” precisely conveying what others may fail to describe.

Wednesday shot by Graham Tolbert

“Townies” draws back a little sonically from the harshness of the first track but still builds to be piercing. It touches on the hopelessness of feelings and the lengths we go to let others treat us at times. Hartzman’s storytelling is hyperbolic, which best captures the depth of her feelings. “Wound Up Here (By Holdin On)” follows this track with crashing drums, breaks, and ripping distorted guitars. Yearning vocals from Hartzman bring the song together and remind listeners what it feels like to hold on when we know we shouldn’t.

The first single from this project, “Elderberry Wine”, is a soft country ballad that has opened Wednesday up to a wider audience, constantly recommended and playlisted since its release. It is chock full of heart-melting harmonies from Hartzman and guitarist MJ Lenderman, whose voices just simply belong together. With its acoustic guitar, pedal steel, and sweet lines, it is clearly one of the great country standards of our day. The reminiscence of old memories and small southern towns are continued on the next track “Phish Pepsi”. “When the cicadas sync up, they breathe too hard” is a standout line that vividly describes this theme. Hartzman’s voice is cloudy and distant, which perpetuates the bittersweet nostalgia of the record.

“Candy Breath” begins strongly with a “Heroes” by Bowie-esque synth and riff, working to transport listeners into another realm within Bleeds. This track builds to an all-consuming hum, then slows to drop out and make way for “The Way Love Goes”. It is the most sincere and collected song on the record, the ultimate confrontation of a love lost and choosing to blame oneself in order to get over it. “And I know it can’t always be/ And that’s the way love goes,” and don’t we all know it.

The beginnings of pain and release that follow this loss, then, are seen in “Pick Up That Knife”. The instruments grow in a deep frustration and at their precipice unload, melding perfectly into the next track “Wasp”, the heaviest on the album. This is the peak of anger and bitterness being completely laid before the listener, in the absolutely overwhelmed vocals and cranked-up bass. “My fear, my fate, it never left/ It follows me into my bed,” showing we cannot escape what we go through, however stinging and lasting its effects may be.

“Bitter Everyday”, the final single released from Bleeds, is a hazy and confronting track. The come-to conclusion is that the things in life that are easy, seemingly abundant, and oh so sweet all eventually cease, through a slow decline in their intrinsic nature each day. This is the last big push on the record sonically and is followed by the resigned “Carolina Murder Suicide”. This track is a complete lament. Hartzman now touches on the distractions we attend to in order to ignore hurt, but knowing the horrors of life can only deflect us so much from it. “But the fire kept on burning at the scraps/ And I wondered if grief could break you in half”, wholly raw and relatable. “Gary’s II” deals a final good loving country goodbye. There is a proper outlaw kind of storytelling here with inflections in it that tie the entire record together neatly in a camo-colored bow.

This record is the flawless balance of country and the alternative we know and love from Wednesday. It deals with themes of grief and confrontation, with all the raging emotions associated. Talks of southern cornerstones like stagnant creeks and small town deaths seem meant for the band to include in their work. Wednesday’s Bleeds, beyond having a fitting ring to it, touches on opening ourselves up to grief recognition and having the gall to confront what pains us. It has easily cemented itself as one of the best albums of the year, and I do not believe I am alone in saying I am thrilled to see what the band has to say next.