Wild Wing drops New Futures (LP)

A synthesizer casts a dark cloud over “Futures,” the intro track that invites anyone who has just pressed the play button of Wild Wing’s all-new album New Futures to sit back and enjoy the sonic spectrum of colors that are about to come alive in the garage rocking “Moma’s Got a Brand New Bag.”

The first real song in New Futures, “Moma’s Got a Brand New Bag” sweats out a blues groove that the band will navigate with a stunning gracefulness, but the cerebral tension in the air is only now beginning to thicken, as we come across “Killing Joke,” the debut single from the record. It is at this point that all of the adrenaline starts to get pumping, as we find Wild Wing backed into a corner, ready to strike out with their gargantuan guitars at anything that dares to enter the path they’re carving out in this vortex of melody. The grit and the grind are ferocious, but the rhythm is so chic that turning the music down never enters our minds.

SPOTIFY: https://open.spotify.com/album/5uMg56prYRObA5FsSSNbcY

“Triumph” tones down the percussive plowing to leave enough room for the bass to induce chills on-contact, and in the three minutes that the song lasts, the psychedelic tones that we heard a little earlier in the tracklist begin to mature and blossom into a true force to be reckoned with. “Me n’ Mine” opens up in a brown mist of low-end bluster, but a sharp little string melody finds its way through the foggy environment and lays out a road to harmonic riches that Wild Wing takes to without a second thought. Slothful sonic whirlpools give way to a terrific twang in “Ontario,” which sports a swaggering beat that is steeped in surrealism, cowpunk and alternative folk simplicity. Even when New Futures takes a turn towards the abstract, Wild Wing never sound scattered or all over the place in their compositional confidence; on the contrary, they sound really well-coordinated, with the chemistry between them cooking at a much higher temperature than that of their contemporaries’ in mainstream rock.

In a percussive pulsation of drum and bass grooving, “Runaround” sways into the void left behind at the end of “Ontario” and brings us back into the boisterous rhythm of the first half of the album flawlessly. This track isn’t nearly as lively and energetic as “Dark Ages” and its signature fiery fretwork are, but the segue from one song to the next feels organic and unforced nonetheless. New Futures comes to a conclusion with “State of the Art,” and even if it didn’t arrive at the end of an all-out noise war, it would still be the most radio-ready song in the entirety of this record. Wild Wing’s latest release is really tough to put down, and thanks to its sprawling palate of emotion, music and meticulous songwriting, it’s easily one of the more anthological LPs that the group has put their name on in the last half-decade. The bottom line? This is a fantastic collection of songs, and ultimately required listening for Wild Wing’s diehard supporters and newcomers interested in the band’s sound alike.

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Michael Rand