Still Coming Down

When one describes art as “sweaty” they’re usually referring to being able to see the amount of effort and work being put into something. Usually applied to acting, it’s a term meant to convey that you can see the strings in the performance. When it comes to Still Coming Down, the newest album by Wild Pink, I mean it literally. The whole album feels like the heat sitting on you on a muggy August day, coated in sludgy distortion, a haze that blinds you. And yet Still Coming Down is the most immediate, kick-open-the-door album in Wild Pink’s catalogue. “Round of Applause at the End of The World” and “500 Is The New 250” sound like Warren Zevon in a swamp, painting portraits of men clinging to conspiracy theories and online gambling, respectively, in order to not think about how they “don’t know what my idea of fun is anymore.” Centerpiece “Like Water” features a keyboard interlude wrenched straight out of the Main Street Electrical Parade and ends with a peppy layered sax coda courtesy of Landlady’s Adam Schatz. It’s the most direct songwriting and crunchiest atmospheres in a discography full of constant innovation and despite the heat it never breaks a sweat.