★★★★★
"This morning, I woke up on the floor, thinking I have never dreamed before"A moment of awakening heralds the arrival of Shriek. There's an oscillating synth-line, a growing tide of feedback and then the footstep-like quality of Jenn Wasner's bassline, which inches its way forwards, growing in confidence with each stride until finally arriving into the above opening line...
- music.thedigitalfix.com
2014-05-29
★★★★★
Tweet Shriek of Pleasure It's atmospheric, dreamy and excellent. Wye Oak come through big with Shriek, their third major studio album. Amazing that two people can pump out this much noise, but Andy Stack (drums, keyboard, bass) and Jenn Wasner (vocals, guitars) aren't exactly your average duo. Notice the word "dreamy" up there? We're not just tossing that one around - if any album was born directly from the stuff of dreams, it's Shriek. Start with the sonic background...
- www.mxdwn.com
2014-05-26
★★★★★
Much has been made of the decision to abandon the guitars on Shriek, the fourth LP from Baltimore duo Wye Oak. Jenn Wasner, herself, expressed doubts as to whether reinvention was a wise move, leaving the band more open to criticism and vacating the comfortable niche they had etched out on the back of the success of Civilian since 2011. However, the assured confidence, indeed often swagger, of the record should quell any concerns.
Structurally, Wye Oak had a formula...
- www.state.ie
2014-06-10
★★★★★
Baltimore/Portland-based duo Wye Oak came onto the indie rock scene in 2008 with plucky guitars and decisive drums as their backbone, the odd distorted breakdown scattered throughout for drama and Jenn Wasner's feathery vocals floating overtop. Four albums later, the band is unrecognizable. Wasner traded her signature guitar for bass and synthesizers, while drummer Andy Stack picked up the keyboards as well...
- nowtoronto.com
2014-05-08
★★★★★
Like them or not, you gotta give it up for Wye Oak in terms of their sheer artistry and refusal to play it safe. Rather than attempting to lazily replicate 2011's breakout album Civilian, the Baltimore twosome of Jenn Wasner and Andy Stack have the pluck to dive into experimentation, accepting the risk that they may fall on their face in the process...
- www.popmatters.com
2014-05-01
★★★★★
Wye Oak fans who were on board with Jenn Wasner's Dungeonesse project from last year--Wye Oak on which she tackled '80s and '90s R&B and pop tropes with a clear love for the form--Wye Oak may not have realized its prescience. Wasner and Wye Oak bandmate Andy Stack are now relegated to different coasts, and as such, have traded in their soft/loud guitar-centric fare for something more manageable from a distance--namely the sort of electronic-based fare present on Dungeonesse...
- www.undertheradarmag.com
2014-04-29
★★★★★
The life of a professional musician is full of paradoxes, but the cruelest is this: Being happy doesn't always result in good songs. Take, for example, Wye Oak: In 2011, the Baltimore indie-rock duo (frontwoman Jenn Wasner, multi-tasking drummer Andy Stack) released the masterful Civilian, an angsty wallop of simmering, psychedelic texture and electric guitar fervor...
- www.pastemagazine.com
2014-04-30
★★★★★
Wye Oak is selling its guitars and buying synthesizers. So goes the pre-release chatter surrounding Shriek , the fourth LP from the duo of vocalist-guitarist Jenn Wasner and drummer Andy Stack--but Internet talking points and online headlines are only the beginning of Shriek 's story. The album still documents the frontwoman's nimble work on a fretboard, but she's playing a bass this time around...
- www.avclub.com
2014-04-29
★★★★★
opinion by AUSTIN REED
Picture this: You're Jenn Wasner. By way of your prominently celebrated indie rock outfit Wye Oak, you have established a reputation as a musician who operates exclusively within the confines of the utterly visceral. Your lyrics move slowly and deliberately, and your melodic prowess suggests that you spent your formative years as Joni Mitchell's personal assistant. You have cultivated notoriety as one of the most graceful songwriters in the industry...
- prettymuchamazing.com
2014-04-30
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