Tigers Blood - Waxahatchee: Review

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Review by Lav:

Before the mid-year point of 2024 I'm trying to catch up on some records I've been meaning to cover. Waxahatchee is up next after her new record somehow slipped through the cracks with me in a busy week earlier this year. I've been a fan of her music for a LONG time on albums like American Weekend and Ivy Tripp. While I was surprised to not particularly enjoy her breakthrough album Saint Cloud, I was much more positive towards her Jess Williamson collaboration Plains and some of the singles from this record. That's why it's no surprise that I came away from this record with mostly positive feelings. 

Let's start with the only place we can start, the lead single Right Back To It. The gorgeous swaying number features some of Katie's best vocals and refrains ever with subtle but impactful additions from MJ Lenderman. It's genuinely one of the best songs I've heard this year and I think it's among Katie's best songs ever. 

That was followed by the second single Bored, in my opinion the weakest of the three. The track being a little too silly is what stopped me from really enjoying it at first but after hearing it live recently while seeing Katie perform I warmed up to it. The video game lyric in the first verse still makes me laugh, probably for the wrong reasons, but I like the way she lets loose on the hook. Somehow I completely lost track of 365 after it dropped as the third single. In a record packed full of great vocal performances, this may be the best of the bunch from start to finish.

Katie's performances are as good as ever on this record and they're the source of numerous highlights among the deep cuts. 3 Sisters kicks off the album in style applying her dramatic singing to a full rush of instrumentation in the swelling second half of the song. Burns Out At Midnight sees her stepping into full storyteller mode with a shift in vocals to something so confidant and vibrant it's infectious. The song bursts out of the mix whenever she's singing so much so that I forget to pay attention to what she's actually saying. 

My favorite of all the deep cuts may be Crowbar. The song resembels an alt-country jam mixed with some singer-songwriter indie and I'm just lapping it right up. I love how the instrumental sways but never feels too dry or simple and the refrains are hooky throughout. Even if the word-bending lyrics don't have the most meaning, they still get stuck in my head. Those same verbose, Courtney Barnett-esque lyrics pop up on Ice Cold which isn't one of my favorite songs here but I do like the lyricism a lot. 

Other highlights include some of the gentlest and most lowkey songs on the album. Crimes Of The Heart is Tigers Blood at its most somber with a whining little guitar lead that I love. Closing track Tigers Blood is the same way serving as a strong finale to the record that manages to say quite a bit in just a few minutes. 

The album isn't perfect, running into some of the issues that singer-songwriter records often to when their instrumentation and tracklist lead to difficulties separating songs from each other. Here the victims are tracks like Lone Star Lake and The Wolves that are so forgettable compared to the rest of the record that it's like they may as well not even be there. Evil Spawn is probably my least favorite track of the bunch. It's the best example of an issue I had with Saint Cloud, namely serving up heartland rock instrumentals that seem to be calling out for a lot more than the actual song itself delivers. 

Tigers Blood is yet another strong entry into Waxahatchee's catalog and I'm glad to see her continue to be embraced by indie and folk fans. I was surprised by just how cold I was towards the record that served as her most acclaimed to date, but I'm much happier with this record and glad I'm back on the same page with the general consensus. Both Katie's singing and her songwriting proves her spot among the relevant singer-songwriters around right now is more than deserved. 7/10

For more singer-songwriters check out my review of Torres' What an enormous room

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