REQUIRED LISTEN: WIDOWER

She's given me hell, so eloquently.  

She resembles the devil, goddamn it, so delicately.  

The hardest thing to do in art is to communicate an honest portrait of the artist.  We all perceive ourselves differently then we actually are, and given the opportunity to manipulate one's truth, most reshape themselves.  Very rarely can sincerity be faked in music, and when a listener is given the gift of hearing a band/musician completely stripped down to what they truly are, magic occurs.  This is the sensation I received when I first listened to the newest album, Fool Moon, by WIDOWER.  

Fool Moon is a complicated journey through the various approaches a songwriter can take when making folk music.  WIDOWER weaves so many possible styles that at first it's hard to pin down the tone of the record, but when the album is fully digested, a singular idea is communicated.  The opening three tracks are the best example of this.  The first track, "Jumper Cables," is a hopeful song with a dreamy, buzzing guitar that gives away to a bouncy verse and an optimistic chorus.  It's a bright tune that doesn't strain one bit, and it acts as an intro to the various elements that make up WIDOWER.  

They follow with "Oh Catherine, My Catherine," a folksy little brother to The War on Drugs' forward-moving melodies.  The track showcases front man Kevin Large and his warming vocals, and is one of the standout songs from Fool Moon.  Everything about it is perfectly placed.  Listening to it, you'll find yourself smiling one second, then feeling dramatically moved the next.  

As if moving down a ladder of changing moods, WIDOWER reaches the bottom rung and introduces the melancholy track "The Antidote."  It's a song of despair, and is full of requests or wishes that we never know, but hope, are granted.  The song, even with a full band, plays like the softest possibility in folk, as Large's voice soars above a melody that's sole purpose is to even out the emotional wreckage that his vocals leave behind.  

The rest of the album follows this shifting paradigm of moods, examining the possibilities in expression through the folk genre. You have the slightly lounge-based "Grasp," the icy harshness of reality on "Thoroughbred," and the love-as-the-strongest-emotional-weight approach on "Almost, Always, All Yours."  It takes a few spins before the album settles in as a whole, but there are enough immediately accessible tracks to suck the listener in even before steady footing is found.  Once the album reveals itself, a calmness comes, and it becomes apparent that WIDOWER is a special talent.  Lyric after lyric, story after story, song after song, WIDOWER crafts a powerful ode to folk music, and presents themselves as artists who truly understand who they are and, more importantly, what they want to say.

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