Cincinnati band Wussy return with `Cincinnati Ohio` their first LP in six years, the first album from the five-piece since 2018’s `What Heaven Is Like`. Wussy are fronted by songwriters Chuck Cleaver (guitar, vocals, piano) and Lisa Walker (guitar, vocals, synth) and backed by Mark Messerly (bass, accordion), Joe Klug (drums, percussion, synth) and newest member Travis Talbert (pedal steel). Sadly, guitarist John Erhardt passed away in May 2020 but his pedal steel and guitar talents are sprinkled on a couple of the latter tracks on this release.
We are led in by the `The Great Divide` which may be a metaphor for the passage from life to death and the track is an enthralling shimmering listen with a rolling backbeat allowing Lisa`s vocals to shine. There`s a more reflective offering in `The Ghosts Keep Me Alive` with a sublime accordion adding a further poignancy in the latter part of the number.
`Desperation AM` has a haunting quite ethereal feel which maybe hints at fate or future being predetermined. A number where the guitar chords add a dreamlike lingering charm. Again, an accordion leads us into `Disaster About You` which has a curious enticing sense with lyrics that seem to tell of being drawn to somebody despite an underlying sense of foreboding.
`Sure as the Sun` has a melancholic ambience in the vocal delivery from Chuck where the lyrics relate a kind of inevitability or certainty about them. We enjoy a more meditative mid paced offering in `Inhaler` with its melodic rhythmic beat.
`Please Kill Me` has shared vocals and for me felt fairly introspective and brooding with a sense of despondency but in a kind of throwaway offhand manner maybe with a perception of disheartenment. There was a feeling of passive resignation with `The Night We Missed The Horror` which appeared to be presented in a distanced detached manner.
Lisa`s vocals on `Days and Hours` were deep, appealing, and utterly enticing with lyrics that seem to hint at the inevitability of life. This release closes out on `Winged` which was initially stripped back before some delightfully fuzzy guitar riffs join on this intense submission which may imply that life is worth living despite its many setbacks.
I read somewhere that Wussy have been described as “merging the Velvet Underground and the Flying Burrito Brothers” and I suppose it goes some way towards describing their sound but it`s so much more than that.
`Cincinnati Ohio` although the band`s eighth album was my introduction to them and I found this album almost overwhelming at times. The lyrics have a thought-provoking sense about them and are shared over a musical backdrop that is both melodic and breathtakingly addictive.
Rating 9/10
