"I cannot stop
I want to be all things
I've got to let go
I want to be all things"
That's what Chelsea Wolfe sang on "Be All Things" from her semi-acoustic last album "Birth of Violence" back in 2019. And even though her duo Mrs. Piss, a Joni Mitchell cover and collaborations with Emma Ruth Rundle and Converge kept her on our radar, it has been a while hasn't it?
It certainly felt longer, especially with that lack of resolve due to the European tour that has never been.
Now after the standstill of the world and trials and tribulations in her own life and environment the Californian Queen of Contemporary Gothic is finally back with an album that seems to be completely built around the premise of those verses.
CHELSEA WOLFE - She Reaches Out To She Reaches Out To She (transparent green vinyl LP) (2024)
It really seems as if she reached out to her many past selfs - Dark Americana Chelsea, Crushing Doom Chelsea, Experimental Alternative Chelsea, Droning Electronica Chelsea, Eery ASMR Chelsea and all the others -, gathered all their collective wisdom and rebuilt herself in a new image that unites all past features to a new, but also familiar face.
"She Reaches Out To She Reaches Out To She" benefits from the creative constants of not only Wolfe's own input as sole writer, singer and lyricist of the album, but also her congenius partnership with Ben Chisholm, who always translates the unspoken part of her soul into thick atmospheric textures (are those two the Wednesday variant of Lizzy Grant and Jack Anonoff?), and her sisterhood with drummer Jess Gowrie, who expresses herself with an impressive performance that seemlessly flows between programmed and actually played rhythms.
For an album so highly anticipated (not only) within the Metal community it immediately strikes you as very Electronic. The booming beat of the opener "Whispers In the Echo Chamber" certainly set a tone, as does the prominent presence of synths during the record's whole duration.
But then there are also obvious heavy guitars; interestingly almost exclusively performed by Mother Tongue's Bryan Tulao, and the only exception on "House Of Self-Undoing" neither being Chisholm or Wolfe herself, but Gowrie. Yet somehow you can never completely put the sound into one specific box. It always is... all things.
But even with some tracks being simultanously understandable as atmospheric Ambient Trip Hop pieces and Industrial-influenced Dark Alternative Metal, the singer's spellbinding charisma and poetry, but first and foremost even before that the extremely earwormy songwriting hold it all together with a naturalness that makes even thinking about the technicality, what stylistic bridges are being crossed, a pretty redundant excercise. Why analyse to death what sounds and feels so perfect?
I won't claim this is Chelsea Wolfe's best work to date - that slope is way too slippery, since I really respect every single entry in her discography to be chosen as personal favorite. And why even settle on one?
But that being said "She Reaches Out..." shows the artist at a very mature high point. Seldom has Chelsea Wolfe paired the darkness with so much light and developed such an open welcoming appeal, without forcing anyone to use the word Pop. No, this album isn't Pop. Yet still there's something universal in the best way about it, and it rightfully should pull many new listeners towards her world.
The only thing I'm actually uncertain about is the artwork. The cover itself isn't her most evocative by far, but the colour combination, also with the transparent green vinyl is fine. But why print the lyrics for ants if you could easily double the font size withour ruining anything? Come on!
Album is still fucking fanatstic though.
It really seems as if she reached out to her many past selfs - Dark Americana Chelsea, Crushing Doom Chelsea, Experimental Alternative Chelsea, Droning Electronica Chelsea, Eery ASMR Chelsea and all the others -, gathered all their collective wisdom and rebuilt herself in a new image that unites all past features to a new, but also familiar face.
"She Reaches Out To She Reaches Out To She" benefits from the creative constants of not only Wolfe's own input as sole writer, singer and lyricist of the album, but also her congenius partnership with Ben Chisholm, who always translates the unspoken part of her soul into thick atmospheric textures (are those two the Wednesday variant of Lizzy Grant and Jack Anonoff?), and her sisterhood with drummer Jess Gowrie, who expresses herself with an impressive performance that seemlessly flows between programmed and actually played rhythms.
For an album so highly anticipated (not only) within the Metal community it immediately strikes you as very Electronic. The booming beat of the opener "Whispers In the Echo Chamber" certainly set a tone, as does the prominent presence of synths during the record's whole duration.
But then there are also obvious heavy guitars; interestingly almost exclusively performed by Mother Tongue's Bryan Tulao, and the only exception on "House Of Self-Undoing" neither being Chisholm or Wolfe herself, but Gowrie. Yet somehow you can never completely put the sound into one specific box. It always is... all things.
But even with some tracks being simultanously understandable as atmospheric Ambient Trip Hop pieces and Industrial-influenced Dark Alternative Metal, the singer's spellbinding charisma and poetry, but first and foremost even before that the extremely earwormy songwriting hold it all together with a naturalness that makes even thinking about the technicality, what stylistic bridges are being crossed, a pretty redundant excercise. Why analyse to death what sounds and feels so perfect?
I won't claim this is Chelsea Wolfe's best work to date - that slope is way too slippery, since I really respect every single entry in her discography to be chosen as personal favorite. And why even settle on one?
But that being said "She Reaches Out..." shows the artist at a very mature high point. Seldom has Chelsea Wolfe paired the darkness with so much light and developed such an open welcoming appeal, without forcing anyone to use the word Pop. No, this album isn't Pop. Yet still there's something universal in the best way about it, and it rightfully should pull many new listeners towards her world.
The only thing I'm actually uncertain about is the artwork. The cover itself isn't her most evocative by far, but the colour combination, also with the transparent green vinyl is fine. But why print the lyrics for ants if you could easily double the font size withour ruining anything? Come on!
Album is still fucking fanatstic though.
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