The Spectres and Soundscapes that abound on Chelsea Wolfe’s She Reaches Out To She Reaches Out To She
Photo credit: Ebru Yildiz
Chelsea Wolfe’s anticipated 2024 release and seventh studio album, She Reaches Out To She Reaches Out To She, out Friday February 9th is full of the gothic power ballads of your dreams (or nightmares?... Depends how you look at it). Newly signed to Loma Vista Records, Wolfe debuted 4 teaser singles leading up to the album’s release, giving us a peek into the industrial, electronic, and altogether dark sonic influences that colour this album. Since her last full length release in 2019, Wolfe has been staying busy with collab project Mrs. Piss (alongside her drummer Jess Gowrie) and co-scoring Ti West’s A24 slasher film, X.
True to Wolfe’s trademark gothic roots, She Reaches Out To She Reaches Out To She paints a range of haunting images and agonizing emotions, but musically she proceeds to defy genre expectations on this release: tinged with trip hop and driving industrial energies, Wolfe creates a sweeping melodrama that will fully consume you. Full of spectres and soundscapes, Wolfe has gone on record to say that She Reaches Out To She Reaches Out To She is a “powerfully cathartic statement about cutting ties, as well as an important reminder that healing is cyclical and circular, and not a simple linear process.” With demo tracks initially recorded around the same time as Wolfe’s 2021 journey into sobriety, there is a rawness that producer David Sitek (TV on the Radio) has worked alongside Wolfe to translate into a multi-genre, multi-layered meal of an album.
Opening track “Whispers in the Echo Chamber” will raise the hairs on your neck when Wolfe leans in close, whispering “this world was not designed for us / and I’ve been punished, I’ve been blessed / surrounded by living ghosts” (you’re gonna want headphones on for this one), the listener is then plunged into the unrelenting, driving opener of “House Of Self-Undoing” Wolfe’s ethereal vocals floating over the chaos of drums and guitar. Later on, “Tunnel Lights” tethers us back to earth with melancholic piano and a more restrained quality, which continues into the latter half of the album. This 10 track album has a distinct and satisfying shift about half way through, changing pace and sound to build a darker atmosphere and really start to play with those electronic and trip hop elements. Wolfe starts getting freaky with it on “Eyes Like Nightshade” haunting and discordant, with later track “Unseen World” really shining with it’s symphonic build, evoking a soundtrack quality (fitting given her recent work on the score of A24’s X). Closing out the album with a slow build on the final track “Dusk”, Wolfe’s reverb drenched keening and jagged guitars bring a satisfying end to this gothic, multigenre meditation.
Your first listen might have you thinking Wolfe has given us too much right out the gate with the sweeping soundscapes, hooks, and crescendos, leaving us wanting more in the latter half of the album; however, a revisit would have one appreciate the intentional, restrained quality of the latter half of the album, noticing a tenderness they may have missed in the first listen. Genre defying is perhaps an overused term, but entirely appropriate and well-deserved in the case of Chelsea Wolfe’s She Reaches Out To She Reaches Out To She.
Favourite songs: Whispers In The Echo Chamber, Unseen World, Eyes Like Nightshade