Wild Nothing - Indigo - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

When Jack Tatum began work on Life of Pause, his third full-length to date, he had lofty ambitions Don't just write another album; create another world. One with enough detail and texture and dimension that a listener could step inside, explore, and inhabit it as they see fit. InchI desperately wanted for this to be the kind of record that would displace me,Inch he says. InchI'm terrified by the idea of being any one thing, or being of any one genre. And whether or not I accomplish that, I know that my only hope of getting there is to constantly reinvent. That reinvention doesn't need to be drastic, but every new record has to have it's own identity, and it has to have a separate set of goals from what came before.Inch

Because Hold, Jack Tatum's fifth album under the moniker Wild Nothing, was written in the aftermath of new parenthood during the pandemic, it was probably inevitable that it would be searching and existential music. But during the recording process, the artist known for synth-pop tastefulness used it as an opportunity to reach for a new sonic maximalism and wider set of influences. With contributions from longtime collaborator Jorge Elbrecht, Tommy Davidson of Beach Fossils and Hatchie's Harriette Pilbeam, first single InchHeadlights OnInch features an acid house- worthy bass groove and breakbeat that prove Tatum is playing for the rafters.Tatum produced the rest of the record on his own, partially out of necessity, due to the challenges of the pandemic. The songs were eventually brought to Adrian Olsen at Montrose Recording in Richmond to begin recording drums and filling in the gaps. While largely a product of isolation, Hold also reflects the things Tatum has learned from collaborators, both on previous records and during his acclaimed work with Japanese Breakfast and Molly Burch. The rest of the record was mixed by Geoff Swan, who listeners might know for his work with Caroline Polachek and Charli XCX. Swan put Tatum's vocals high in the mix, and throughout the album, he embraces playful vocal processing like never before.Tatum moved from Los Angeles back to his home state of Virginia about five years ago in search of a scaled-back lifestyle. The relatively suburban environment-and the occasional regret it inspired-proved to be great artistic fodder. It's the para- dox of modern America-the suburbs are supposed to be stultifying to art, but they are so full of human desperation perfect for dramatizing. On InchSuburban SolutionsInch, he presents an anti-jingle with an acidly bright synthesizer melody, imploring you to sign on the dotted line, put your feet up, and

Clear + Blue Marble + Red Splatter. InchIt's a record about everyday struggle because I've always been a fighter,Inch Maurizio reasons. InchIt's about the emotional impact of everything happening in our world, which inspired this anger in me and a need to express the importance of standing for what we know is true in our hearts. It's a hybrid between that and revisiting things from my childhood that built my character as a person.Inch