Consumer Guide Album

Waxahatchee: Tigers Blood [Anti-, 2024]
At 35 going on 40 (when did that happen exactly?), Katie Crutchfield still can't catch a romantic break while continuing to nurture an untextured vocal affect that sounds not teen, too practiced and thought through for that, but direct, unvirtuosic. Even now, she reminds her male singing partner, "I imprint all your ideas on mine." Yet the guy remains "a wrangler keeping the pace/Hunting for open space," leaving Katie's heart "strung up like a flag" and she herself "too weak to just let you drown." Good metaphor, gal. Take it as literally as seems meet--you know very well that's what he deserves. A-