Music Reviews: Horsegirl, Bartees Strange, and Sam Fender

‘Phonetics on and on’ by Horsegirl

Horsegirl’s sophomore album “finds power in keeping things playful,” said Hazel Cills in NPR.org. “A compulsively replayable record,” Phonetics On and On finds the young, all-female alt-rock trio from Chicago nearly done with college and already “trying to build itself from the ground up by identifying what’s fun to play, what’s fun to sing.” This isn’t to say the music is underdeveloped. Aided by producer Cate Le Bon, the bandmates “locate the perfect level of musical restraint that still allows Horsegirl to cause a little chaos.”

Le Bon has turned the distortion levels way down, “letting the simplicity of the riffs and the chord changes do the work,” said Mark Richardson in The Wall Street Journal. Meanwhile, the often high-pitched bass lines are “packed with catchy riffs,” and the vocals, though distant in affect, are “charged with melodic beauty.” You could complain that Horsegirl hasn’t done anything new. Still, “Phonetics On and On is a best-case scenario for a young group studying the history of underground rock, a beautifully rendered amalgam of influences that congeals into something its members can call their own.”

‘Horror’ by Bartees Strange

“Bartees Strange’s ability to quickly cut to the visceral makes Horror a tantalizing project,” said Hanif Abdurraqib in The New Yorker. The singer, guitarist, and songwriter—a Black queer man who grew up an Army brat in rural America—is singing about societal-rooted fears he has overcome and also examining “more private preoccupations: fear of loneliness, fear of not being a good friend, fear of not being loved.” As always, his music is “stitched from a patchwork of colors that seem like they should clash but somehow cohere seamlessly.” Certain songs smoothly braid ’70s soul, indie rock, and hip-hop. And “Horror isn’t all delectable heartache and fear; it’s also, at points, a good-ass time.”

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Unfortunately, “some of his sonic ideas feel more tired than those of previous releases,” said Clare Martin in Paste. The driving rock melody of “Sober” feels “cheesy and overly familiar,” at least until the big climax, while the song “17” is built on “a slight snooze of a folksy melody.” But those are exceptions here. “On the whole, Horror delivers,” mixing heartfelt emotion with “an eclectic collage of funk, dance, country, and even noise rock.”

‘People Watching’ by Sam Fender

Three albums in, Sam Fender remains a 2020s anomaly, “a young star playing an electric guitar and singing songs of protest and passion,” said Neil McCormick in The Telegraph (U.K.). “Drawing heavily (perhaps slavishly) on Bruce Springsteen,” his first two albums topped the U.K. pop charts. People Watching picks up where those left off—“around 1978, roaring out of the darkness at the edge of town in a beaten-up Ford.” Fender transcends his tendency toward “passionate but undistinguished rocking” on two tracks here: “TV Dinners,” a yelp of self-doubt set to a Dylan-like composition, and “Crumbling Empire,” which revisits a misspent youth while brushing up against “Streets of Philadelphia” and Don Henley’s “The Boys of Summer.”

It’s little wonder that Fender tapped Adam Granduciel of the War on Drugs as a co-producer, said Jon Dolan in Rolling Stone. Both have a knack for “refurbishing classic Bruce gestures into sleek new products.” While Fender imbues his working-class tales “with real empathy and honest ambivalence,” he’s yet to give us anything at the level of The River. Still, “he’s sweating his way in that direction.”