Dulling the Horns

“How can there be/really nothing in between/that big-ass moon and me?” goes the final refrain on the title track of Wild Pink’s latest and best album Dulling The Horns. It’s a question that reflects the down-to-Earth turn after 2022’s lush ILYSM; these songs were written and recorded with the intention of stripping everything back to something a band could replicate live. While Wild Pink has always been frontman John Ross’ name for whatever he and others may release, this is the first time Wild Pink feels like an honest to goodness band. The arrangements hit harder, breeze quicker, the melodies carving their catchiness into your brain with thunderous guitars and additional sax wizardry from Landlady’s Adam Schatz. Standout tracks “Eating The Egg Whole” and “Splinter Brain” are ethereal, jangling punk, and lyrically — with the cinematic tragedies of “Bonnie One” (“we were dogs and you killed the man that hurt us”) and “Cloud or Mountain” (“he’s gonna find a room in a shipwreck/with a bed-sized twin/’cause waking up is how the trouble gets in) — Ross has never been sharper or more heartbreaking than right now.