In November last year, I meditated on the persistent beauty of Forth Wanderers’ debut full-length Tough Love for its 10 year anniversary. This week, the band is releasing their first album in seven years. The Longer This Goes On picks up right where the phenomenal indie outfit left off.
“We’re not back,” guitarist Ben Guterl insists in the press release. But maybe this is a good thing. The five-piece releases music on their own terms, which is rare for an act on a label as big as Sub Pop. The result is a discography with no misses. Forth Wanderers’ output is consistently laden with emotion and intentionality. The 2016 Slop EP and 2018 eponymous LP are masterpieces — they don’t share anything that’s not completely worthwhile.
Forth Wanderers’ pseudo-return comes the way most do these days: It’s a result of the pandemic. Guterl met up with vocalist Ava Trilling at a Brooklyn café in 2021. When all the members were jamming out together again, Guterl says it “felt the best it had between us since we had started the band. It felt like we were just in high school again.” From their music, you get the sense that Forth Wanderers’ chemistry is ephemeral, that it only works in the right moments. Miraculously, they were able to extend their transient magic. The title The Longer This Goes On feels like a coincidental nod to that idea — Forth Wanderers aren’t meant to last, so don’t let them go on much longer.
The Longer This Goes On is staggeringly beautiful. “We had more fun with style and testing what we could get away with, whether it’s bluesy, country, slower, or darker; whatever sounded good,” Trilling explained, a sentiment that many artists boast in press releases. In this case, it’s true in the best way; Forth Wanderers sound more like themselves than ever before, with an undercurrent of sonic exploration running through the record. Have they made an anthem more upbeat and fun than “Barnard” before? I don’t think so. If they ever toured again — which seems unlikely — this banger would have everyone losing their minds.
Forth Wanderers remain confident in their playful, poignant earworms. Opener “To Know Me/To Love Me” crashes with gorgeous, calculated urgency, a falsely invigorating introduction to a record that flexes its intriguing languor. “Spit” is a breezy tune buoyed by surreal slide guitar, imbuing the song with the texture of a sweltering afternoon as Trilling lazily lulls the masterful hook: “Tell me how I felt your name in my mouth/ Tell me how to spit it out.” The unhurried “Honey” captures the romance of inertia: “Move like honey/ Watch it slow down,” Trilling croons.
Kicking off with a snarling bassline, “Springboard” burns with a scintillating, eerie attitude. “Make Me” is similarly snarky, teasingly slow and almost lo-fi, sounding like a timeless tune leaking out the windows of a jazz club. “Bluff” is built on a keyboard that mimics the holy vibrations of a church organ. “I’m so open, baby/ Somebody stitch me up,” Trilling begs. “I’d rather leave you lonely/ Than have to call my bluff,” she admits, confessing her loyalty lies more to her dignity than it does to anyone else. The whimsical instrumentation seems to mime the absurd dynamics of relationships — the kind of dance humans do in order to try to please others and oneself.
“Seven years later, we’re coming together as… not different people, but adults,” Trilling said about the record. But Forth Wanderers’ music was startlingly mature even when they were high schoolers. The Longer This Goes On finds the band once again striking the perfect balance of youthful and wise. No one does it like they do.
The Longer This Goes On is out 7/18 via Sub Pop.
Other albums of note out this week:
• Alex G’s Headlights
• Raekwon’s The Emperor’s New Clothes
• Billie Marten’s Dog Eared
• DJ Haram’s Beside Myself
• Coral Grief’s Air Between Us
• Jim Legxacy’s black british music mixtape
• Two Shell’s IIcons
• Jamie Lidell’s Places Of Unknowing
• Laura Jane Grace In The Trauma Tropes’ Adventure Club
• Cleo Reed’s Cuntry
• Disiniblud’s Disiniblud
• Madeline Kenney’s Kiss From The Balcony
• Vines’ I’ll be here
• Benny The Butcher’s Summertime Butch 2
• Dream, Ivory’s When You Come Back I Have So Much To Tell You
• ShrapKnel’s Lincoln Continental Breakfast
• We Are Scientists’ Qualifying Miles
• Bush’s I Beat Loneliness
• Jade Bird’s Who Wants To Talk About Love
• Hannah Holland’s Last Exit On Bethnal
• Slaughter To Prevail’s Grizzly
• Trisha Yearwood’s The Mirror
• Dylan Gossett’s Westward
• Mox’s Spirits
• Dead Tooth’s Dead Tooth
• Lord Huron’s The Cosmic Selector Vol. 1
• Daron Malakian And Scars On Broadway’s Addicted To The Violence
• Healy’s FORCE OF NATURE
• Dougie Poole’s At Tubby’s Live Album
• One More Satellite’s One More Satellite
• Various Artists’ Tectonic Sound
• THROATCUT.’s RESILIENCE.
• rRoxymore’s Juggling Dualities
• Paul McDonald’s So Long To The Dark Side
• Max McNown’s Night Diving (The Cost Of Growing Up) Deluxe
• Slikback’s Attrition
• Hamid Al-Saadi’s Maqam Al-Iraq
• Kaiser Chiefs’ Employment Deluxe
• Rio Romeo’s Good Grief
• Håvard Volden’s Small Lives
• Styx’s Circling From Above
• Scissor Sisters’ Scissor Sisters (20th Anniversary Deluxe)
• Alex Warren’s You’ll Be Alright Kid
• Jessie Murph’s Sex Hysteria
• Sly & The Family Stone’s The First Family: Live At Winchester Cathedral 1967
• Fletcher’s Would You Still Love Me If You Really Knew Me?
• Avalon’s permanent californian
• Scars On Broadway’s Addicted To The Violence
• Walter Mitty And His Makeshift Orchestra’s Yikes Almighty
• Cam’s All Things Light
• Cell Rot’s Parasite
• Zac Farro’s Operator
• Jackson Wang’s MAGICMAN 2
• BettySoo’s If You Never Go Away
• Soft Hearted Scientists’ The Phantom Of Canton
• Ally Salort’s Change Of Plans
• Niko Moon’s American Palm
• Erode’s Devout
• Jonathan Richman’s Only Frozen Sky Anyway
• Samora Pinderhughes’ Black Spring Mixtape
• Puzzled Panther’s Fits Of Serenity
• Hard Life’s Onion
• awfultune’s split
• BTS’ PERMISSION TO DANCE ON STAGE – LIVE
• Lelo’s New Detroit
• NODEGA’s Rot In Helvetica
• Groceries!’ Human Extinctions
• KEYS’ Acid Communism
• Kanii’s #BLUE EP
• Messer’s CUTS EP
• BORDERLINE’s Chrysalis EP
• Luke Tyler Shelton’s Blue Sky EP
• Pancratio’s Love Letters EP
• Terence Fixmer’s Magnetic North EP
• Nectar Woode’s it’s like I never left EP
