Winged Wheel

Winged Wheel have been favorites around here since they started, having roots deep in local RSTB haunt Tubby’s. Following the headrush haze of their sophomore album, Big Hotel, the band seeks to carve out a more furrowed form on Desert So Green. The band ditched the studio seance for a more planned approach, no longer carving pieces out of longform jams and instead finding their footing between the poles of desire and dissonance. The record has a hunger to it, a wiry rawness that’s evident from the opening pair of tracks, “Canvas 11” and “Canvas 2.” Both set the stage for the album as something searching for the edges, rather than moving towards the middle. There are elements of pop on Desert So Green, but just as often there are hackles, hinges, chafes, and scrapes. Unlike the constant, clouded motion of Big Hotel, DSG works its wonders in the leaner moments, lurking in shadows, lounging in our collective unease.

That’s not to say that the band doesn’t create welcoming moments on DSG. Some of their most overtly enticing songs are littered over the course of the new record. “Bird Spells’ might open with an itchy tempo, but as the rhythm hooks in, the song evolves into one of the band’s best, offering up just as much billow as they ever have. “Beautiful Holy Jewel Home” shimmers with slow, lithe edges. The tension dissolves for just a moment before the teeth slowly sink back in on “Canvas 8.” The end of the record also offers a perfect balance of laceration and luminescence. The back-to-back beauty of “I See Poseurs Every Day,” and “The Suite Goes Quiet,” provide a sterling comedown for the album. The former hinges on Whitney Johnson’s entrancing, enveloping fog of vocals, while the last song ushers the album out with an appropriately arid sense of ill ease, a fitting barometer for the climate of 2026. The band has been many things in their short tenure, but Desert So Green proves that Winged Wheel can’t be pinned down or penned in as they continue to evolve.

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