Bleeds
Over the past few years, the North Carolina natives have carved out their own distinct (and influential) lane in indie rock: *Twin Plagues*, the band’s 2021 breakthrough, introduced fans to their noisy hybrid of shoegaze and country, while 2023’s *Rat Saw God* helped kick off a new generation’s alt-country revival. Wednesday’s sixth album, *Bleeds*, hones their signature sound—often gnarly, occasionally sublime—with lyrics by bandleader Karly Hartzman that play out like contemporary Southern gothic short stories unfolding inside of dusty dives or along the banks of creeks in her hometown of Greensboro. *Bleeds* arrives in the wake of a pivotal time for the five-piece band (singer/guitarist Hartzman, guitarist MJ Lenderman, lap steel/pedal steel player Xandy Chelmis, bassist/pianist Ethan Baechtold, and drummer Alan Miller): Hartzman wrote much of the album during a grueling world tour, in the midst of which she and Lenderman ended their six-year romantic relationship. But the songs of *Bleeds* are intimate in a different way entirely, built around strikingly detailed anecdotes picked up from conversations with friends or overheard bar wisdom. “Weeds grew into the springs of the trampoline/You saw a pit bull puppy pissing off a balcony,” Hartzman sings on “Wound Up Here by Holdin On,” jointly inspired by a line from a friend’s poem and a story about a body pulled out of a West Virginia creek. A rerecorded version of “Phish Pepsi,” first released on Hartzman and Lenderman’s 2021 collab EP *Guttering*, recounts a weird, stoned teenage memory (“We watched a Phish concert and *Human Centipede*/Two things I now wish I had never seen”). And their small-town transcendentalism is at its best on “Elderberry Wine”—the prettiest they’ve ever sounded, though not without its ennui.
Karly Hartzman leads her North Carolina band in another triumph. The careful songwriting and coiled performances wrestle with the many fiascos of life and love.
A spectacular return, Bleeds shows more control over Wednesday's chaos and provocative grit lit.
With more eyes on Wednesday than ever before, Karly Hartzman has delivered a record that’s lean, confrontational and lived-in with 'Bleeds'.
On Wednesday's new album, 'Bleeds,' darkness and humor uplift each other with jocose morbidity as Karly Hartzman’s pen amplifies them both.
On their sixth album 'Bleeds,' Wednesday trap darkness and heartbreak in creek rock amber. Read our review.
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Wednesday’s ‘Bleeds’ is a mishmash medley of Southern indie-rock. The new album presents songs of confession, reflection, wit, heartache and true crime in
Wednesday’s ‘Bleeds’ veers between well-oiled honky-tonk and aggressive, battered guitar rock.
Wednesday's Bleeds is a monumental statement from one of the most exciting bands today, and it's among the best records of the year.
Bleeds by Wednesday album review by Ivy Skarda for Northern Transmissions. The band's forthcoming LP drops on September 19 via Dead Oceans
Wednesday - Bleeds review: Wednesday expand their palette even further with yet another masterpiece.