40 Watt Sun
Little Weight


4.0
excellent

Review

by Have you tried jamming Helcaraxe? CONTRIBUTOR (143 Reviews)
September 9th, 2024 | 28 replies


Release Date: 09/06/2024 | Tracklist

Review Summary: Constellations of grief.

Little Weight is perhaps the closest 40 Watt Sun has ever been to exuding any real sense of warmth. The bittersweet love and loneliness in which Patrick Walker exists may have had a thread of commonality in which to find comfort, but it never felt quite so direct that he was ever just trying to give the listeners a big fat hug. That is to say that this is the most approachable 40 Watt Sun have ever been in spite of all the languid tinctures that stain the glass we look through, as if to showcase that the haze will soon withdraw even has not yet. “Pour Your Love” introduces through IMMENSE reverb drawn across surprisingly jubilant chord progressions this concept. I say surprisingly because of how glacially paced the riffs actually are, with most variance or inflection coming in the form of Walker’s weighty croons.

With this notion in mind, it is at the core of each song's initial tone that a semblance of variety is created. Each 40 Watt Sun song is often this mournful, immutable piece, with differentiating balances of joy and dread and anxiety being initiated the -moment- you hear the first note. “Half a World Away” is, aside from Perfect Light, the most airy and spacious that the band has ever been, stripping away nearly all reverb until the tracks closing sequence, making for a more dainty and precious but slightly happier affair. While every track still emits a great sense of longing, this hits a notable peak in “Astoria”, with vocal melodies that crackle and waver like a wind breaking against the endless oceans tide. If “Half a World Away” is a rather piteous pinnacle of joy, then “Astoria” is it reeling back into desire and confusion, flailing desperately for love that has been buried.

The final track “The Undivided Truth”, while the longest and mayhaps most trudging track, is an unequivocal balance of love's bittersweet honesty that are the heart of Walker’s ideals. The guitar tone is dull and dismal but with bits of acoustic brightness that creep towards the latter half, with the vocals maintaining a similar flow of unmoving dismality until a feeble strength is revived from the ashes. It is a song that struggles against the weight of its own mourning, and yet there is always a new horizon somewhere within its grasp. This is one of the big motifs of the band itself-this idea of love as a great human necessity, something upon which our minds orbit and carries with it all the wildest highs and lows we may ever experience. It becomes easy, then, to live in its shadow, always longing for the brief hours or minutes of ecstasy that can be tailed by months of obsessive grief. This is why Little Weight is so consoling. It’s an exhibition of that desire and fixation at its lowest points, but with glimpses into an existence where those wild highs can finally exist in rollicking hills of more manageable peaks and valleys rather than the destructive tendencies we may live in right now.

“And standing on the Fulton riverside
All of my life seemed to me like the lights out on the water;
Lonely notes of clarity
But didn’t they shine?”



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user ratings (46)
3.5
great
other reviews of this album
PsychicChris (4)
Admittedly a step down from 40 Watt Sun’s previous albums but ultimately another great addition...



Comments:Add a Comment 
Dedes
Contributing Reviewer
September 10th 2024


10475 Comments

Album Rating: 4.0

Idk what's up with the album art but uhhh yall should check this!

artificialbox
Contributing Reviewer
September 10th 2024


2492 Comments

Album Rating: 4.0

beautiful words there Dedes!

This album has been my first exposure to 40 Watt Sun, and while I was initially taken aback by the vocal style, it's character grew on me really fast. Gonna have to check out the rest of their discog now

Dedes
Contributing Reviewer
September 10th 2024


10475 Comments

Album Rating: 4.0

Inside Room is for sure the best but all their albums are different shades of fuzzy acousticy sadness with differing levels of heavy fuzzy riffs

DoofDoof
September 10th 2024


15747 Comments

Album Rating: 4.5

Great review, good to see this getting some positive rating - it might be their weakest but it’s still very nice indeed

hangth3dj
September 10th 2024


860 Comments

Album Rating: 4.5

I'm still waiting for the vinyl I pre-ordered to arrive before listening...but my patience is wearing thin and Spotify is looking at me longingly.

Dedes
Contributing Reviewer
September 10th 2024


10475 Comments

Album Rating: 4.0

@doof

I think I still prefer this to Wider Than the Sky but confessedly I haven't even TOUCHED that particular album in a few years. I remember being completely blind to the concept of slowcore so coming upon it took me more than a minute to appreciate lmao

DoofDoof
September 10th 2024


15747 Comments

Album Rating: 4.5

Dedes, yeah 'Wider than the Sky' was my first one so has that going for it for me, but also I haven't revisited it in full for a while.



I tend to play the opener and 'Craven Road' a lot more than the rest, love those two.

Dedes
Contributing Reviewer
September 10th 2024


10475 Comments

Album Rating: 4.0

I'll prolly rejam it sometime today

But for now

I have

BUT DIDNT THEY SHIIIINE stuck in my head

God Half a World Away is so fucking good

DoofDoof
September 10th 2024


15747 Comments

Album Rating: 4.5

The bit I'm digging today is the coda of 'Feathers' - never stood out before

DoofDoof
September 11th 2024


15747 Comments

Album Rating: 4.5

Yeah, starting to feel 'Feathers' might be one of his best tunes.



This album is very strong but I feel doomed to be overlooked as people encounter initial fatigue with more of this same style.

zakalwe
September 11th 2024


39976 Comments


Album cover is very mid to late eighties Athena poster

hangth3dj
September 11th 2024


860 Comments

Album Rating: 4.5

Vinyl pre-orders have been hit by shipping delays, so I've given in and listened on Spotify.



It is WONDERFUL.

Feather
September 11th 2024


10437 Comments


No surprise that Feathers would be one of his best tunes

Great album

starboystargirl
September 12th 2024


714 Comments


will this dude ever be happy

hangth3dj
September 12th 2024


860 Comments

Album Rating: 4.5

If he keeps making music this good...keep him sad.

Dedes
Contributing Reviewer
September 12th 2024


10475 Comments

Album Rating: 4.0

When Brendan Murphy (Counterparts) and Pat Walker are cured from depression all sad music will be gone

Iamthe Nightstars
September 13th 2024


2984 Comments


Is doom indie just another way of saying slowcore?

BallsToTheWall
September 13th 2024


51555 Comments


Cool review, will have to jam.

hangth3dj
September 13th 2024


860 Comments

Album Rating: 4.5

Who called this doom indie?

Dedes
Contributing Reviewer
September 13th 2024


10475 Comments

Album Rating: 4.0

Incorrect, this is funeral doom indie



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