Wednesday - Rat Saw God

Karly Hartzman's characters live in a time and place where things don't go well for most folks. It's a town where parents barely pay attention to their children, kids with fireworks accidentally set cotton fields on fire, bored teenagers get messed up on Benadryl, guys OD in parking lots and no one seems surprised, and boredom and emptiness are epidemic. As guitarist, lead singer, and songwriter with the band Wednesday, Hartzman has built an album around tales of life in this dead-end town, and 2023's Rat Saw God is a superb evocation of living in the decaying margins of America. Hartzman's voice runs from a plaintive murmur to a wordless, articulate howl, and she does a masterful job of telling her stories without pity or judgment, communicating a compassion that never fades even when it's obvious some of these people are their own worst enemies. There are flashes of beauty in her lyrics that only add to the impact of her faultless observational writing, making dreamlike images out of stark realism and back again. Just as importantly, Hartzman's bandmates generate a muscular, guitar-laden brand of Southern-accented indie rock that's a marvel in its sense of dynamics and its sure-footed balance between melody and noise. Some albums sound like the artists were trying with all their might to make an epic statement in words and music; Rat Saw God sounds like Wednesday had no such lofty aims, but their commitment to the people they write about and their instincts about crafting music to match make this a stunningly powerful work that may well turn out to be a masterpiece. ~Mark Deming, allmusic.com