Over the course of a decade, Louisville, Kentucky's
Young Widows
evolved from angular post-hardcore (having sprung from the ashes of the more metallic
Breather Resist
) to a moodier, more atmospheric outfit inspired by songwriters like
Nick Cave
and
Bill Callahan
. Aside from their four studio albums, the band have issued a bevy of non-album singles and split releases with a wide range of artists, including post-metal group
Pelican
, Japanese noise-punks
Melt-Banana
, and indie folk troubadour
Bonnie "Prince" Billy
.
Decayed: Ten Years of Cities, Wounds, Lightness, and Pain
(a title which references all of the band's full-lengths) rounds up most of their extracurricular material, but in reverse chronological order, starting with both songs from the bonus 7" which came with the band's marvelous 2014 album
Easy Pain
, and ending with the tracks from the band's 2006 split with
Coliseum
. The release's most recent songs are filled with reverb-heavy drums and vocals as well as brooding guitars, sounding heavy and lumbering but not hard or abrasive. While the songs are always dark and sometimes introspective and confessional, there's a few more anthemic moments such as "Checked In/Out" and "Rose Window," which are nevertheless tense and tricky. As the album moves to the band's pre-2010 work, the influence of early grunge and noise-rock bands like
Melvins
the Jesus Lizard
is more easily apparent, particularly in the shouted vocal delivery and harsher guitar tones. While clearly a patchwork release rather than a proper album,
Decayed
is still quite consistent, and it provides an excellent opportunity to hear how far the band has come, and how much their sound has expanded and matured. ~ Paul Simpson