Am I so old that an artist releases something called CD Wallet ironically? I don't know. My birthday was yesterday and I might be in a new bracket. Anyway, Homeshake is here with this one and it's mostly Peter Sagar. The Canadian musician is adept at a kind of melancholic, bedsit indie.
While opener "Frayed" starts softly and then crashes with a bit of noise, the aching "Letting Go" is heavier indeed. Mournful but precise, it's a haunting number, and an example of how Homeshake can create something fairly distinctive in a field littered with many people making music in bedroom studios. And I'm not even sure Sagar recorded this in a bedroom, but that it sounds like it was, and that it retains that sense of intimacy is what gives CD Wallet some kind of currency.
Unlike his 2019 album, this one from Homeshake is more deliberatively down-tempo. "Smoke", a little gem of a tune, nearly evaporates even as its hook lingers in the brain, while the fine "Penciled In" revs down in a neat mix of Neil Young- and J Mascis-style noise. This is simple stuff, but it's haunting in a way, and sort of charming.
CD Wallet by Homeshake is out now. Details below.
[Photo: Matthew Yoscary]