Grown-up Music, Written by Grown-ups
Worth Every Second
By Nirmal TrivediWhen the soulful horn comes in unannounced towards the end of the final song on the recent album, “The Spire,” by the band known as Wring, you know you’ve reached the conclusion of a performance that you just want to keep going. The mysteriously-titled track, “Coming Past Song,” is a ballad that leaves you with such heartache that when singer and guitarist Nick Parker sings with his gentle, blanketing voice that “it’s already over,” it feels like it comes too soon.
Thankfully, you can, and want, to listen to this elegant and sorrowful EP over and over again, each return bringing something new and unexpected. The five, short tracks are filled with seemingly effortless melodies, subtle hooks, and understated synths. But despite this simplicity, a third and fourth listen yields recognition of textured, overlapping beats, poignant harmonies, and ethereal “sounds” unrecognizable as any single instrument. Each track is so expertly crafted with parts fitting into each other like a finished puzzle, that when a bread and butter rock song like “Autobarn” ends abruptly with a ripping, staccato bass line from Art Baron, one wonders if something else in the album might be waiting to respond and complete the phrase.
That “something else” might well be found in the lyrics, which seem to float above the instrumentation and speak directly and unabashedly about lost loves, new anger, and a sense of deep gratitude. To whom this thanks is given is, of course, up for interpretation. As the intricately simple sounds of “The Spire” rivet the listener, the depth of the music really comes out in Parker’s words. From the album’s first moments, it would seem that we’re bearing witness to confessions meaningful only because they are received by the attentiveness of a careful listener: “Once more I’m sure I was right / All that is left I’ve refined / to more than to merely survival / Let it go.” And when Parker asks plaintively, “Sing your tipsy song / careless one,” finding yourself singing along just might the reason why Wring thanks you.
Reflective and melancholic as the lyrics are, they also ring out with anger and sarcasm in the spirit of Quasi as when in “Autobarn,” Parker harmonizes “You’re only in this / to see me fail” or in “Coming Past Song,” with “the best day we had / was before it started.” Neither of these moments are sung gruffly, but rather with a delicacy that gives you pause.
Emotionally complex, “The Spire” is a testament to what can be accomplished in a short fifteen minutes of music. It is worth every second.
This is Not Your Parents' EP
by Nikhil GuptaThis is not your parents’ EP. Seconds into Nick Parker and Art Baron’s first cut, The Spire puts the listener into a place that he finds new, surprising, and unsettling just as often as he finds it familiar, comforting, and healing. Between the drum beats that begin “Colum,” piano and vocals emerge unexpectedly, as if from a room where nothing more was to be expected. Those vocals pile up into a three-part harmony that is as surprising as it is beautiful, and we begin to wonder what else we’ll find throughout the five tracks.
When Kevin Herlin’s voice pushes through “Autobarn,” the collaborative energy behind Wring flashes up, and we realize how thoughtfully the EP serves up contributions from guests in the form of lyrics, vocals, and trumpet croons. For all that it can sound like the work of a well-geared ensemble that infused these songs with spirits from different sources, The Spire is most definitely Parker and Baron’s project. It’s as anchored in Parker’s vocals and Baron’s bass—and their shared guitar playing—as “Duet” is by the single hook that plays throughout the entire song. The
third of five songs, “Duet” fittingly reminds us who’s at the heart of this album. Parker and Baron’s guitar and bass wrap around one another in “Autobarn,” and while they may play with the song’s guest vocals, they won’t be pulled apart by it.Even when styles and sounds within the EP seem to part ways (like the pairing of the very different first two tracks), they have a way of coming back around together (like the expansion and contraction of drums in “Dead Calm”). Similarly, elements of the EP can be switched in and out for one another (acoustic riffs turn electric in “Dead Calm” and vocals become a trumpet in “Coming Past Song”), but they always make the music more cohesive for it. Each track generally feels like it could have been the beginning of a different LP project altogether, but still they all are at home with one another.
The Spire’s compelling wholeness is in no small part due to Wring conjuring up places so powerfully—often mysteriously—that they can’t be ignored. We often feel like there’s so much at stake in listening to these songs because we don’t know if we’re completely safe in the places they take us: tall grasses, rooftops, outside autobarns (whatever those might be), and, of course, home. When Parker sings “Run, run,” he might be warning us lovingly or he might be toying with us. All we know is that there is “Terror hunting in tall grasses” and we’re best off doing whatever he says. By the time we get to “Coming Past Song” we’ve been compelled to “wander home” with these songs; in fact, we’re compelled to wander anywhere with these songs. We want whatever it is that brought them together.
Grown-up Music, Written By Grown-Ups
by Jeff WassermanWring's CD, "The Spire," which is set to be released sometime this spring, is fifteen minutes of exactly what I’ve been looking for – grown-up music, written by grown-ups for the consumption of grown-ups. The band, led by Rhinosplode’s music guy, Nick Parker (ex-Disband and Cobra Kai Dojo), sounds different on each track. The disparate parts, however, build up to a cohesive and ultimately highly satisfying whole.
I listened to The Spire for the first time while driving at night. The opener, “Colum,” with its piano and nonlinear vocal melody, gave me the distinct impression that this was going to be some sort of moody pseudo-Radiohead disc, which I was perfectly okay with. But when “Autobarn” kicked in, the distorted bass and poppy pre-chorus (with its off-kilter drums) let me know that, in the tradition of Parker’s previous efforts with the Disband, this was going to be one of those CDs that create their own specific sound worlds.
The Spire doesn’t disappoint, except for its brevity. I’d love to hear more past the beautiful closing track, “Coming Past Song.” I have no idea if Wring will be able to perform live (there’s a lot of studio stuff going on in these songs), but I definitely want to hear more from them.
