Arriving a year after 2017's
Out in the Storm
--
Waxahatchee
's most defiant album of her first four -- the
Great Thunder
EP offers a drastic contrast to its predecessor's crunchy, full-band indie rock. Presenting
Katie Crutchfield
's sparest material since her 2012
debut, the EP's six tracks were selected from the handful of releases she wrote and performed as half of
, her duo with onetime
Swearin'
bassist and
touring drummer
Keith Spencer
. She reworks the songs here, stripping down arrangements to minimal piano or, in two cases, guitar, with occasional light touches of electronic keyboards, bass, and percussion. The opening track, "Singer's No Star," opts for simple piano chords and a few backing vocals as accompaniment. The song was taken from
's final release,
The Great Thunder Radiator Hospital Wedding Album
, which was home-recorded in 2014 with
Radiator Hospital
's
Sam Cook-Parrott
. The original version, while still warm and wistful, was delivered via a full-band arrangement that included multiple guitar solos as well as lead vocals by
Cook-Parrott
.
Crutchfield
's redo essentially moves the song from the garage of a group of
Big Star
disciples into the living room of a singer/songwriter with affection-infused grievances. It should be noted that these are not home recordings; rather, the EP was tracked at
Justin Vernon
's April Base studios in Wisconsin with
Megafaun
Brad Cook
. Nevertheless, imperfect, immediate performances, along with melodies that sometimes push
into her upper range, intensify the raw intimacy of the EP and the vulnerability inherent in most of the songs. Over the course of
, her voice seems to more naturally complement the guitar, and the guitar entries "Chapel of Pines" and "Slow You Down" are among the EP's highlights, also offering its most fleshed-out arrangements. Lacking the intensity of her main catalog,
plays out more like an addendum that an essential
recording, but the songs are still worth discovery. ~ Marcy Donelson