Try not to laugh too hard, but I’ve always thought Erika Wennerstrom was a man.
Before you howl with derision and call for me to be committed, or beaten to a pulp with placards by irate feminists, I should explain that previously I didn’t know the names of the band members and I’ve never actually seen her. Well, apart from now, because I just Googled her. And she most certainly is NOT a man.
What threw me off scent was her rather androgynous voice, which is either a deep throated Debbie Harry or Cold War Kids frontman Nathan Willett with his nuts in a vice, but not tightened too hard. To me, it sounded more like the latter.
The odd thing is, it’s quite enchanting.
‘Wind Up Bird’ is a startling way to begin, basking in the type of musical sunshine often purveyed by the likes of Turin Brakes, and culminating with the magnificent nirvana of urgent, wailing guitar psychedelia. Michael Weinel is predominant here, as indeed, he embodies and encapsulates everything that Heartless Bastards are striving to be throughout ‘Restless Ones’.
‘Black Cloud’ is something of a standout, like early Blondie perhaps performing a song written by Mink De Ville, while there are strong hints of Karen O bubbling just beneath the surface at times. Often the soulfool groove of Alabama Shakes comes through here too, especially on the likes of ‘Hi-Line’ in which Weinel seems to have been possessed by the spirit of Peter Buck circa 1991. This album, like many of R.E.M.‘s compositions at that time, feels like a road movie of sorts – a rusty old Buick carving up a dust trail on its way through an unrelenting, stifling, neverending desert.
It’s a real songwriter’s record though, where our drifters escape from the intense sunshine of the latter track to blow around like a paper bag in the zephyr, dancing prettily, twisting and fluttering, aimless and diaphonous, but altogether beguiling. All that, and I haven’t even SEEN ‘American Beauty’ in over a decade. Sod’s law then that the next track is called ‘Eastern Wind’, given that I’ve just used up all my breeze-based analogies.
‘Into The Light’ reminds me of the tragically underrated Houndmouth, with its easy West Coast twang and vocals that by and large resemble Katie Toupin, whereas ‘Tristessa‘ is part Chrissie Hynde and part Patti Smith and a fine way to finish.
So, given my last few comparisons, basically Erika doesn’t sound like a man after all, but one thing’s for certain, she and her band sure have bollocks.
[Rating:3.5]
