Since its release on Sept. 19, I’ve had indie band Wednesday’s new record, “Bleeds,” on constant repeat. The group, hailing from Asheville, N.C., and led by singer Karly Hartzman, has been making music since 2020. They have produced six (yes, six) full-length studio albums since.
This latest record is both the best album the group has recorded and the most “Wednesday” album to date. Hartzman’s vocal performances range from gentle falsettos to screaming, raspy rock vocals that would make even Robert Plant proud. The instrumentation, likewise, moves from tender and sweet (like the syrupy, slightly melancholic single, “Elderberry Wine”) to distorted, grungy noise rock, and even at times into alt-country, full of slide guitar and brushed drum parts.
Delving into the band’s (still rather short) history gives a new level of bleeding hurt to this raw and literary album. Former lead guitarist MJ Lenderman and Hartzman broke up in March 2024, but, despite that, it is still Lenderman’s guitar work that is present on the album. Pitchfork compared this to Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham’s breakup, and the subsequent (let’s say interesting) recording sessions of “Rumours.”
Beyond their relationship, however, the album presents as an assemblage of deeply personal feelings, Hartzman’s love-hate relationship with N.C., herself and, at times, music itself.
Elderberry wine, Pepsi, dull small town scenes, horses and bars all morph from the Asheville-Greensboro (where Hartzman recently moved), experience into beautiful art; the low becomes the high.
“Bleeds” is, above everything else, a true tour-de-force of what indie-rock can be, and should be: beautiful, complex, relatable, melancholic and always a bit too honest.
